Victoria’s Premier Daniel Andrews was late in his daily presentation of new COVID-19 cases for Monday.

There were 429 new COVID-19 cases confirmed overnight with 13 deaths of which eight were linked to aged care. Among the deaths was a man in his 60s, two men and a woman in their 70s, two men in their 80s and five women and a man in their 90s.

After Sunday’s announcement of Stage Four measures in the way we live our lives – including curfews, Mr Andrews spoke of a critical six-week period for businesses with three different categories of workplaces.

“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,” he said before announcing the businesses which would remain open and those that would shut.

“What is clear is that if we don’t do this now, if this doesn’t work, then we’ll need a much longer list of complete shutdowns,” Mr Andrews said.

“It’s hard to imagine what a Stage 5 might look like. But it would radically change the way people live.”

Category 1 – Businesses that will remain open

Supermarkets, grocery stores, bottle shops, pharmacies, petrol stations, banks, news agencies, box offices, front line workers

Only one person from each household would be able to visit these stores for an hour “so there is no need for people to be going and buying months worth of groceries”.

“I can’t guarantee that everybody will get every product they want in the quantities they want but everything you need will be there and there is no need to be doing anything else other than buying things that you need when you need them,” Premier Andrews said.

Category 2 – Industries that need to close

Retail, some manufacturing and some admin will close from 11.59pm Wednesday.

“You will no longer be able to go to a Bunnings store but you will be able to collect goods without coming into contact with anybody,” he said.

Category 3 – Open, but will look different, operating at reduced capacity

Meatworks will reduce production by 1/3, and this will apply to all of Victoria and not just Melbourne from midnight Friday.

Construction will also be streamlined, however large-scale major public works will continue. Apartments of more than three storeys will only have 25 per cent of their workforce working and domestic homes will only be able to have five workers on site at any given time.

“That means essentially for some of these industries, we are moving them to a pilot light phase, not being turned off completely but they are dramatically reducing the number of people they have working for them and their output over the next six weeks,” Premier Andrews said.

READ MORE: Melbourne, a ghost town, as new Stage Four lockdown rules implemented

Grants

Premier Andrews said he had been speaking with Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison about more support that is to come, particularly in relation to JobKeeper and JobSeeker to well past the six-week window.

“It will be a joint effort,” he said, adding that he would work in partnership with the Commonwealth to “support those that need support”.

“I can announce today that all those businesses that are forced to close (restaurants, cafes, beauty, gyms) all of those in regional Victoria as part of stage three will be eligible for a $5,000 grant from our government and we will do our best, our very best, to get those paid as quickly as we can,” he said, adding that the same criteria that had apply will continue to do so. “We had the best part of $850m, $900m worth of those payments made out at another point. In terms of metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell shire, you will be aware that we are currently in the process of paying out literally thousands of $5,000 grants.”

An additional $5,000 will be added to the grants.

He estimated that there will be 500,000 people working from home, and the premier was aware that an additional 250,000 have been stood down.

There will be no cleaners coming to your house or tradies that are unnecessary at the moment, however tradies are allowed to come in emergency situations eg plumbers.

READ MORE: Fourth COVID-19 stimulus package to focus on tradies, home renovations

Those who are moving homes will be allowed to do so.

“I don’t want to see people who are supposed to move from one place to another ‘cause the lease has run out unable to do so. We’re go to get some specific advice on that. We’ve already given it a fair bit of thought,” he said.

“I think the answer will be yes – if you’ve got a contract, an arrangement in place, then we will allow you to fulfil that.”

More announcements to come

“I will have more to say tomorrow about significant boosts in penalties, significant boosts in enforcement, and again, I am very grateful to the Prime Minister for the partnership that he and I have, because tomorrow’s announcements around some of those issues will involve further ADF, further important support for us to get this job done,” Premier Andrews said.

More announcements will come for residential and commercial tenancies.

“We’ve all got to make a contribution to less movement rather than more,” Premier Andrews said.