As it happened: Victorian Premier announces further easing of restrictions as state records ninth day of zero cases; Australia's death toll remains at 907

Ms Dickson reopened her business in late October after the lockdown was eased but was not able to offer about 90 per cent of her services due to the mask requirement.

Since closing her doors in March, Ms Dickson said her salon had reduced staff from three employees a day to just one and all staff were working reduced hours.

"It’s not sustainable to stay open like this," she said. "We are going to remain open [for the next two weeks] because we are still able to provide treatment.

"We would have preferred for it to be started tomorrow but we’re just so happy to have a date. I think the whole industry is ecstatic."

Doncaster woman April Brodie, owner of Beaute: The Facial Destination, said she was excited to reopen but she expected a tough road ahead.

"I was delighted I finally had a date, I was disappointed it would still be another couple of weeks away," Ms Brodie said.

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“I’d then wait and eventually lift it indoors," he said.

He has also welcomed the cautious reopening of visitors to homes as part of today's easing of restrictions.

From 11.59pm tonight, people can have up to two people visit them at home per day.

“If the visitor number was changed too quickly it would make me nervous. We went from five to 20 overnight just after the quarantine leak,” he said.

Clearer messaging to young people about the dangers of COVID-19 was also needed, he said.

“If you look back, the second wave in Israel started with high school kids meeting up after school," he said.

"Young people don’t think it’s going to affect them, but the so-called 'long COVID' we are seeing can affect young people. So that message has to be done clearly.”

Professor Toole said it was time to open up Victoria to both New Zealand and some other Pacific islands, such as Vanuatu.

“Vanuatu has never had a case. Australians like going to Vanuatu and it is suffering from a lack of tourism,” he said.

He also said Victoria could consider opening to countries like Taiwan and Vietnam that had successfully tackled the virus.

“Taiwan is the safest country in the world [for coronavirus] right now, so we could open to them,” he said.He also said China “have basically got it under control. ... So opening to China could be considered”.

"We are still asking people to wear masks outdoors when we are worried about the amount of exercise people are getting," she said, adding that the state wanted to open up to tourism.

"Who is going to want to go on a holiday wearing a mask on a beach?"

She said rules on wearing masks outdoors would likely be eased by November 23 when New South Wales will open its border to Victoria.

She said the government could be even more liberal in freeing up outdoor mask-wearing laws with case numbers so low.

"The risk when you are outdoors and in free-moving air and able to keep your distance from other people, the risk is as close to zero as it can possibly be," Professor Bennett said.

"There is still a place for masks in prevention; we need to keep them in certain places just in case the virus is there. But to insist on wearing them at all times and the Premier’s response to being questioned on that being 'because it’s a simple rule' … [is at odds] with the rest of the roadmap, which has rules … all over the place.

"And yet we can’t say to people ‘put a mask on as soon as you’re near other people outdoors or when you’re indoors'."

She said that she was concerned masks could disappear altogether in a bid to keep things simple.

"My concern is that masks will disappear altogether [in the next round of easing] and in fact I would still like to see them indoors, in places like cinemas and the like," she said.

The thirty-two-year-old’s parents have owned the fixed caravan for over twenty-five years. Ms Hyde went from riding her bike and playing in the park as a kid to seeing her own children, George, 4, and Henry, 2, enjoy the same carefree childhood.

"It’s all the same people around us so they’ve become really good friends with some of the kids," Ms Morgan said.

Read how Victorians are celebrating the lifting of restrictions here.

“A COVID-normal Christmas, we are going to be able to deliver that, we are going to be able to enjoy it.’’

The lifting of the state of disaster, the end of the crisis council of cabinet – a regular hook-up between the Premier and seven senior ministers responsible for different aspects of COVID policy – and a return to something resembling normal government sends a clear signal that Victoria is no longer a state in crisis.

Fundamentally, however, the government is sticking to the same abundance of caution that has characterised its policy response to the destructive second-wave epidemic caused by failures in hotel quarantine.

Read the rest of Chip Le Grand's analysis here.