A nightly curfew and tightened exercise restrictions are among the changes coming into effect from 11:59pm in metropolitan Melbourne.
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the toughened lockdown rules were needed as the state teeters on "the brink" of losing control of the Delta outbreak spreading through Melbourne.
These are the rules that will be in place under the city's lockdown, which has been extended to 11:59pm September 2.
A curfew is back
From 9:00pm to 5:00am, those in Melbourne cannot leave their home except for limited reasons.
Essential workers will be able to leave home to go to work.
While the curfew won't take legal effect until 11:59pm, Premier Daniel Andrews implored Melburnians to observe it from tonight.
He said there would be a heightened police presence to enforce the curfew.
ABC News: Joseph Dunstan
)Professor Sutton said people were not allowed to travel to meet a person in their single bubble during the curfew hours.
He defended the curfew as a difficult but necessary measure to prevent a months-long lockdown if the outbreak worsened.
"The evidence around curfews is not dissimilar to evidence around a whole bunch of other interventions," Professor Sutton said.
"They are hard to tease apart from the suite of interventions that happen.
"But between stopping small gatherings, stopping large gatherings, density quotients, social distancing and the like, it is one of a suite of interventions that was very successful last year in Victoria and there are published studies on curfews and people are free to look at them."
Exercise rules have been tightened
Previously, you were able to go out to exercise with your household.
But from 11:59pm, you will only be able to exercise with one other person, "plus dependants if they cannot be left unattended", the government said.
The other person can still be from another household and the two-hour daily exercise limit remains in place.
Mr Andrews warned against using the right to exercise as cover for a multi-household picnic.
"Exercise is just that, it's not an opportunity for seven families to catch up in the park," he said.
Outdoor playgrounds, skateparks, basketball courts and gym equipment will all be closed.
Professor Sutton said he thought "long and hard" about what the measure would mean for families with young children, for whom the playground was "one of the only escapes from home in a day".
"It is not an easy choice to make and the welfare issues are real," he said.
But he said he was concerned that there had been lots of gatherings at playgrounds, including not just children but parents as well.
"Many of them socially distancing, wearing masks appropriately, but a not-insignificant number, who will sit right by each other, coffee in hand, mask down ... that's a transmission risk," he said.
Keep your essential worker permit on you
After flagging concern that some people who had the ability to work from home were still heading into the office, Mr Andrews announced permits would be required after 11:59pm Tuesday night.
"If you're an authorised worker, you'll need a permit, just like you did last year," he said.
He said some higher education students, who needed to attend education on site, would also require permits.
"We have to limit the number of people who are moving around, many of whom who are choosing to go to work, when they don't need to go to work," he said.
"They can work from home and they must work from home."
Mr Andrews said applications for permits would be uploaded to the Victorian government's coronavirus page before Tuesday night.
Construction, religious broadcast workers restricted
Large-scale construction sites must reduce staffing to 25 per cent or five workers on site, whichever is higher.
Five people may still meet to help organise a broadcast for religious communities, who are prohibited from gathering.
But those five people "must be the same five people each time", the government said.
You can't take your mask off to drink alcohol
Previous mask rules mandated masks everywhere outside the home, but with a broad exemption if you're eating or drinking.
After venues hosted takeaway "pub crawls" over the weekend, authorities have tightened mask rules to state that "face coverings can only be removed to eat and to drink non-alcoholic beverages".
Masks must be carried at all times and must be worn indoors and outdoors except if at home, or when visiting an intimate partner's place of residence.
Otherwise, it's the same rules that have been in place since the city's sixth lockdown was called on August 5.
The lockdown does not apply to regional Victoria.
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