'Retail will look very different': Bunnings, non-food stores to close
Supermarkets and pharmacies will remain open but almost all other retailing in Melbourne, including hardware stores such as Bunnings, will be closed to customers under stage four restrictions.
Announcing the new rules on Monday – which will also include restrictions on the meat processing and construction industries – Premier Daniel Andrews said people do not need to panic buy six weeks' worth of groceries.
A long queue forms outside Bunnings, Northland on Sunday as Melburnians face tougher stage four lockdown restrictions within days.
"I understand that there is a sense of concern in the community," he said.
"You do not need to [panic buy] because supermarkets as well as grocery stores, the local fruit and veg, the local butcher, the baker, all of those shops, they will remain open."
The announcement of the new stage four restrictions came as the state recorded 429 new cases of coronavirus on Monday, taking the state's total to 11,937.
A further 13 people have also died from the virus lifting the death toll to 136.
Victoria moved to stage four on Sunday with tighter controls on people's movement including a night-time curfew.
On Monday the Premier said customers will no longer be able to go into large hardware stores such as Bunnings but will be able to collect goods as long as they don't make contact with anybody.
"Retail will look very different than it's looked," he says.
"It's critically important to have many, many people at home rather than at work and moving to and from work each and every day."
A long queue forms outside Woolworths supermarket in South Melbourne as customers prepare to stock up on shopping with Melbourne facing tougher stage four lockdown restrictions within days. Credit:Wendy Tuohy
There are new rules around construction with commercial building projects no longer able to have more than 25 per cent of staff on site at any one time.
For residential construction, there will no be more than five people on site at any one time.
The workforce on large-scale government projects has been cut by half.
"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," says Daniel Andrews.
Meat, meat product, and seafood processing and distribution centres have been singled out for specific controls as the government considers them to be "high risk".
They will operate under a 33 per cent reduction compared with their usual peak.
Workers will be allowed to attend only one site with the banning of "site hopping".
All of these restrictions on businesses apply to metropolitan Melbourne only, except for abattoirs which will operate under stage four throughout the state.
"We can't have a situation where such a high risk environment is operating under two different sets of rules into different parts of the state," says Daniel Andrews.
The exemptions from the retail closures announced by Mr Andrews include: supermarkets, grocery, food and liquor shops; convenience stores; petrol stations; pharmacies; post offices; hardware, building and garden supplies shops retailing for trade; maternity supplies; motor vehicle parts for emergency repairs only.
Personal care services including hairdressers will be closed, as will car washes and photographic film processors. Locksmiths, laundries and dry cleaners are exempt from the closures.
Retailers will also be able to work onsite for the purposes of fulfilling online orders.
The businesses that need to close will need to do so by midnight Wednesday
The 13 deaths announced on Monday include a man in his 60s, two men and a woman in their 70s, two men in their 80s and five women and two men in their 90s.
Eight of the 13 deaths are linked to known outbreaks in aged care facilities.
Thirty-six of Monday's Victorian cases are linked to outbreaks and 393 are under investigation.
The number of active cases has risen to 6489, while 5111 people have recovered from the virus.
Thirty-five people are currently in intensive care, with a further 416 in hospital.
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