Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has now confirmed which businesses will be shut down as part of stage four restrictions, which were announced and implemented on Sunday. It comes as the state recorded 429 new cases of coronavirus over the past 24 hours.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday afternoon the premier said from midnight this Wednesday in metropolitan Melbourne, retail, some manufacturing, and some admin will be forced to close.
“These businesses, unless they have specific requirements to safely shut down on a slightly longer timeline, they will have to close by 1159 on Wednesday night,” he said in the press conference.
“To give you the retail example, for instance, Bunnings, you will no longer be able to go into a Bunnings store but you will be able to collect goods without making contact with anybody.”
Andrews confirmed supermarkets, bottle shops, pharmacists, petrol stations, banks, news agencies, post offices will remain open. “That means people do not need going to buy six weeks worth of groceries,” he said.
He added places like meat works will remain open but will scale back the way in which they work.
“In terms of the third category of businesses that will have to scale back the way in which they work, they will remain open but they will look very different and they will be operating at a significantly reduced capacity to what a normal August and September would look like,” he said.
“If I can give you a couple of examples, firstly, meat works, we know that meat works are a really significant challenge for us. Whether it be lamb, poultry or beef, they will move to two-thirds production, so they will reduce their production by one-third.”
The premier continued: “As heartbreaking as it is to close down places of employment, while I never thought that I would be telling people not to go to work, that is what we have to do in order to stop the spread of this wildly infectious virus, this deadly virus.”
Victoria also recorded a further 13 deaths over the past 24 hours, including a man in his 60s, two males and females in their 70s, two males in their 80s and five females and two males in their 90s.
“That is 13 more Victorians who have passed away because of coronavirus,” Andrews said. “Can I send my best wishes and my sympathies and condolences to each of the families have lost a loved one since we last review. This will be an incredibly difficult time for them and every Victorian is with them.”
Monday’s update comes after the premier unveiled harsh new lockdown restrictions yesterday (Sunday) afternoon and declared a ‘state of disaster’, following confirmation that the state had recorded 671 new cases of Covid-19. The Victorian leader introduced a nightly curfew and stricter guidelines around shopping. These new restrictions are expected to be in place until at least September 13, 2020.
As part of the new guidelines, only one member of a household can visit a shop, and the store must be within 5km of their home. In addition, a curfew is being introduced between 8pm and 5am daily. The only reason residents can now leave home between those times is to give care, receive care or go to work. Residents will also be limited to one hour of exercise per day.