On Saturday premier Daniel Andrews announced a tightening of restrictions across the state on the back of 96 new COVID-19 infections over the past five days, but also offered the idea that regional areas could open under a "different set of rules" when it was safe.

Under the reimposed rules, households can host no more than five extra people at a time until midnight on July 12, and cafes, restaurants and pubs cannot have more than 20 people in one area when they had been expecting the number to increase to 50 at midnight on Sunday.

While there were 19 new confirmed cases in Victoria on Saturday, there have been no new cases in Ballarat since May 17, while Moorabool has had just three, Hepburn two and Golden Plains and Central Goldfields have recorded just one case each.

"Where there's no transmission we may well seek to open those communities up a little faster than otherwise the case," Mr Andrews said. "But before that it's a hard, long road thinking about what we might be able to do more in regional Victoria."

Any potential easing of restrictions in regional areas would be unlikely to happen before the end of the school holidays, which begin next week, and would only be done under the advice of the chief health officer.

Local business and community leaders were cautious about the possible easing of restrictions, saying they must be done in a way that did not encourage potential COVID-19 carriers to flock to the regions from the city.

Commerce Ballarat chief executive Jodie Gillett said allowing regional workers back into their offices would help businesses and the city get back on their feet.

"It's a very different thing to be taking half a dozen people back into the office in the Ballarat CBD than 1000 people into an office in Collins St," Ms Gillett said. "If we can get people back into our centres and working in our offices it helps not just hospitality but the rest of the business community.

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"There's also lots of concern around mental health and people managing their employees over what has become a very long period of time working from home."

Committee for Ballarat chief executive Michael Poulton said it was important that sport and recreation be among the first restrictions eased in regional areas if an early opening was granted.

"Community sport and recreational type activities are hugely important to regional areas, and you can limit the impact of people from outside the areas because typically you are talking about members of community clubs and organisations and you know who is involved."

Mr Poulton also praised Ballarat for its good work in adhering to social distancing restrictions that allowed hospitality and other industries to reopen over the past few weeks.

Ballarat mayor Ben Taylor said any easing of restrictions in regional areas while they remained tighter in metropolitan areas could be difficult to manage, but would wait to see what the state government proposed.

"It's a challenge for us to see the restrictions change (as announced on Saturday). You want to try to get back to normal, visit family and friends ... but we are not out of this yet. It's disappointing we are not going forward, and a little backward, in eating at restaurants and visiting homes.

"These precautions are very frustrating but something as a community and city we need to be aware of and if we do the right thing hopefully we can reopen."

Cr Taylor urged Ballarat residents to support the local economy and stay within the Ballarat area if they are able.

"Shop here, get coffee, lunch, dinner here and support our businesses. That would allow us to keep ourselves at least within our region," he said.

Hepburn mayor Licia Kokocinski was nervous about the potential of a local outbreak of COVID-19, but welcomed any potential easing of restrictions to allow workers to return to their offices or greater access to community facilities such as libraries.

"I'm not too sure how it would work and if there were more people coming up to us ... it might make locals more anxious but if they were talking about the sort of loosening of restrictions that would allow people to go to work in towns or make the case for more libraries then that would be welcome."

News that cafes, restaurants and pubs would be unable to increase the number of patrons to 50 as planned as of Monday drew a mixed reaction, with few local venues unable to hold that many patrons anyway because of the one person in four square metre rule.

Provincial Hotel owner Simon Coghlan said the hospitality industry had been looking forward to the relaxed conditions but the need for safety was vital.

"It's more of a challenge in bigger venues but smaller venues there's not as much impact based on the four square metre rule," he said.

The now-delayed roll back of restrictions would have allowed capacity at his hotel to increase from 20 to 25.

"It will delay things a little longer but people realise we've got to find our feet and establish what the new normal will look like."

Australian Hotels Association Victorian branch president and Red Lion Hotel operator David Canny said it was a blow to the industry, many of whom had been ready to open to the increased numbers.

"We are disappointed because pubs have proven in the last three weeks we can open safely and we were looking forward to the next lot of restrictions easing. Even 50 patrons wasn't ideal and with the one in four square-metre rule ... we know that opening for the public for some isn't viable for survival in the current crisis.

"There's a lot of uncertainty and we understand the health issues but we are disappointed."

With much of the increase in recent cases across the state related to family gatherings, Mr Canny said allowing pubs to host more patrons could actually be safer than people visiting and hosting parties at home.

"If pubs could open they could have a birthday party at the pub where we do contact tracing and social distancing ... but at homes we know that's not going on."

IN OTHER NEWS

On Sunday the state government extended the State of Emergency until 11.59pm on July 19 to allow the government to continue to enforce physical distancing and isolation requirements, as well as other directions from the chief health officer.

"Now is not the time to let our guard down, our coronavirus fight is far from over. Keeping the State of Emergency in place will ensure we have the tools we need to keep Victorians safe," said state health minister Jenny Mikakos.

Victorians were also warned that police would step up their enforcement of restrictions, conducting spot checks of venues and homes to ensure compliance with directions put in place to help slow the spread of coronavirus.

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