Updated April 13, 2020 15:35:43

Victoria has confirmed 13 new cases of coronavirus overnight as Premier Daniel Andrews warns the current COVID-19 restrictions will be needed for "some time yet".

Of the 1,281 confirmed cases in the state, 1,075 people have recovered from the virus.

The state's coronavirus death toll remains at 14 and 40 people are in hospital with COVID-19, including 14 in intensive care.

"We're seeing positive results, but they are fragile," Mr Andrews said.

The Premier said the number of new cases was much better than in other parts of the world, but "they can change rapidly" and an "ultimate victory" over the virus was some time away.

Australia's Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy said this morning that only 33 new cases of the virus were confirmed across the country overnight.

However, Professor Murphy cautioned this was likely due to a downtrend in testing over the Easter weekend.

Mr Andrews said Victoria's number of coronavirus cases was stabilising as fewer people returned from overseas and suspected cases of community transmission were now the main concern.

It comes after the Premier announced yesterday the state of emergency in Victoria would be extended for another four weeks.

More than 400 fines issued over Easter long weekend

In the lead-up to the Easter long weekend, Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt warned the holiday was "the most important weekend we may face in the whole course of the virus" as authorities urged Victorians to stay home.

Victoria Police issued 433 fines between 11:00pm on Thursday and 11:00pm on Easter Sunday after conducting thousands of spot checks across the state.

Of those, 158 fines were issued in the 24 hours to 11:00pm yesterday.

Photo: Police have been told to target "blatant" breaches of physical-distancing directives. (ABC News: Andrew Altree-Williams)

A police spokeswoman said examples of breaches included six outlaw motorcycle gang members gathered in cars on Flinders Street overnight, eight people having a party in St Kilda and "playing loud music", and a number of overseas tourists having a party at a short-stay property in Cowes, south-east of Melbourne.

Under Victoria's stage three restrictions, there are only four reasons to leave the house — shopping for food and essential supplies, medical care or caregiving, work or education if necessary and exercise.

When asked about reports some Victorians had been fined for laying flowers at graves, Victoria Police said in a statement officers had been given "clear instructions" to exercise discretion if people were in cemeteries to pay their respects.

"In the case of people visiting cemeteries, in the absence of any other factors which may have led to an infringement being issued, these fines will be withdrawn," a spokesperson said.

Victoria's Human Rights Commissioner Kristen Hilton last week told the ABC some of the fines that had been issued were unfair and the Government needed to continually review the restrictions it had in place.

Mr Andrews said police had provided "many, many" more warnings than infringement notices, and "from time to time they will seek to revise the decisions that they made".

A Victoria Police spokesperson said the overall provisional number of penalty notices that had been issued by police for breaching the Chief Health Officer directions was 1,130.

They did not clarify how many had been withdrawn.

Premier warns against complacency

Mr Andrews said Victoria was beginning to flatten the curve of new infections but warned "there can be no sense of complacency".

"That's why whilst we would like to be able to ease some of the restrictions that would not be the responsible thing to do at this time," he said.

"This is one of those long battles where we have to work together to make significant gains and then consolidate those gains."

Mr Andrews warned the number would "change rapidly if people treat April like it's any other year" and the stage three restrictions would likely be in place for "some time yet".

The Victorian school term resumes this week, but parents have been urged to keep their children at home if they can and teachers at state schools are prepared to teach online.

Mr Andrews said the choice the Government made in relation to schools was to give students, staff and parents "as much certainty as possible".

He said it was unlikely for online learning to remain for the entire year.

"I wouldn't rule out changes. But we're conscious to try and provide as much certainty as possible, we don't want things changing day to day, this is a model that can be sustained for a term and it may even be longer than that."

Hopes pinned on construction to help Victoria 'bounce back'

The Premier vowed a construction boom underway across the state "will get bigger" to help the state's economy recover on the other side of the pandemic.

He last week told the ABC in an exclusive interview that construction — which continues under the current stage three restrictions — would play a major role in the economic recovery from the crisis.

Speaking with Transport Infrastructure Minister Jacinta Allan about level crossing removals today, Mr Andrews said construction jobs were "more important than ever to every single Victorian".

Photo: The massive project to remove Melbourne's level crossings is continuing amid the shutdown measures. (ABC News: Timothy Marshall)

"There's been a lot of damage done to the Australian economy and Victoria is not immune from that," he said.

"I think there is capacity to bounce back … [due to] the strength of the Victorian economy before this pandemic and the JobKeeper and JobSeeker polices putting a floor under this."

The state budget has been postponed, and Mr Andrews said it would be "pointless trying to put together a budget right now".

Ms Allan said level crossing removals had continued, with the latest to be removed at Toorak.

She said there was work continuing on the Metro Tunnel project, in regional Victoria on the Warrnambool line, the Monash Freeway and early works on the North-East Link project.

While unions have raised concerns about safety on construction sites, Ms Allan said the works were being done with modifications.

"Smoko doesn't look like what it used to, now we have staggered smoko times and people are more spread out across the site," she said.

"There's cleaning regimes going on across the sites and different work practices so people aren't spending too much time together in one place."

Hotels used to house homeless Victorians

Breaking down the latest news and research to understand how the world is living through an epidemic, this is the ABC's Coronacast podcast.

Meanwhile, people experiencing homelessness are being put into hotels and motels for month-long stays during the pandemic.

Melbourne City Mission normally provides short-term emergency accommodation for its clients, but to ensure the safety of its clients and staff, it is housing people in hotels longer-term.

The organisation's general manager, Wayne Merritt, said on any given night 22,500 people in Victoria were homeless, and family break-down and violence were the main reasons.

"We see a couple of thousand young people each year, and on first presentation about 65 per cent of young women say they are escaping family violence, and young men, it is about 50 per cent."

Mr Merritt said the lockdown restrictions were making it harder for people to escape their problems and the physical-isolation requirements also meant hotels were the best choice.

He said hotel chains like Quest Apartments were helping the charity, but he expected demand to grow the longer the pandemic stretched on.

Over the weekend, the Victorian Government announced a plan for four sites in Melbourne to care for people experiencing homelessness who may have COVID-19, and a $60 million mental health care package.

Topics: covid-19, diseases-and-disorders, health, government-and-politics, law-crime-and-justice, community-organisations, police, crime, states-and-territories, australia, vic, india, geelong-3220, mildura-3500, melbourne-3000, melbourne-airport-3045, uruguay, horsham-3400, bright-3741, warrnambool-3280, sale-3850, ballarat-3350, bendigo-3550, shepparton-3630

First posted April 13, 2020 11:20:53