Acting Victorian Premier James Merlino said with no community transmission in regional Victoria this week, regional restrictions are proposed to begin easing from 11.59pm tomorrow night.

The next 24 hours will confirm whether this change can go ahead.

READ MORE: Victoria reported six locally acquired cases of coronavirus on Tuesday as speculation of a lockdown extension continues

"At the end of another seven days, we do expect to be in a position to carefully ease restrictions in Melbourne, but there will continue to be differences between the settings in Melbourne compared to regional Victoria," Mr Merlino said.

In regional Victoria it's proposed the five reasons to leave home will be removed and there will be no limit on the distance you can travel from home.

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Regional Victorians can only travel to Melbourne for a permitted reason and must follow Melbourne restrictions once there.

The changes proposed for regional Victoria include:

Mr Merlino said the variant currently in the community was "quicker and more contagious than we have ever seen before".

He said vaccinations were the best way to protect against contracting the virus, but only 2 per cent of the population are fully vaccinated.

"If we let this thing run its course, it will explode. We've got to run this to ground because if we don't, people will die," Mr Merlino said.

"And if that happens, it's our most vulnerable. It's our parents, it's our grandparents, it's Victorians with underlying conditions or compromised immunity."

Businesses must check the IDs of everyone they serve.

There are new exposure sites in regional Victoria, including Anglesea.

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Melbourne will stay in lockdown for a further seven days, with an expanded 10 kilometre radius.

The state government announced a further $209 million for businesses on top of the $250 million package announced earlier this week.

That doesn't include regional businesses, Mr Merlino said.

"We will also be able to announce a package of support for regional tourism operators and accommodation providers in coming days, and that is a reflection of the impact of the continuation of different settings in Melbourne and regional Victoria for a little while, and that does include the Queen's Birthday long weekend," he said.

"We have also renewed our request to the Commonwealth to activate a JobKeeper-style support for Victorians who have been impacted by these restrictions."

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