As virus cases hit their lowest point in seven weeks on Monday, Premier Daniel Andrews flagged plans to re-write the Public Health and Wellbeing Act to allow a state of emergency to last for up to 18 months.

At present, the declaration can only run for six months and is due to expire on September 13, along with Melbourne’s stage four lockdown and regional Victoria’s stage three rules.

Andrews said his government would no longer be able to dictate guidelines on mandatory mask use, isolation rules and business density limits without an extension.

“We’ve got to protect public health, there can be no economic rebuilding until we fix this problem,” he told reporters.

Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien said the state coalition would vehemently oppose a long-term extension which would allow the premier to unilaterally keep Victoria locked down.

It means the Labor government will have to win the support of four upper-house crossbenchers to pass it into law if and when parliament next sits.

Reason Party MP Fiona Patten and Liberal Democrats MPs David Limbrick and Tim Quilty have all indicated they’ll block the current proposal.

“An extra 12 months in a state of emergency is an overreach,” Patten told AAP in a statement.

“These powers should not go unchecked. The government should re-work their proposal and come back to the crossbench with a three or six-month extension.”

The backlash prompted Andrews to take to Twitter overnight to tell Victorians the proposal was about keeping people safe and does not mean the current lockdown will be extended.

“Extending the State of Emergency is about ensuring that we can legally make the changes our health experts need to keep us safe,” he said.

“This does not change how long our current lockdown will last, or increase the restrictions we face.”

The political debate came as new cases in Victoria plummeted to 116 on Monday – the lowest figure since 74 on July 5.

The premier said the lower daily case numbers and a general decline in coronavirus indicators were great news for the state.

A further 15 deaths, all connected to aged care, took the state toll to 430 and the national figure to 517.

There remain 3701 active cases in Victoria, with 1568 of those linked to the aged-care sector.

So-called mystery cases were up 108 to 4028 on Monday.

-AAP

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