More than half of her colleagues in the Legislative Assembly were told to stay at home as an emergency sitting of parliament convened to pass measures relating to the coronavirus pandemic.

"Around the world, we are grappling with a pandemic at a size and scale community have not had to grapple with before so we have had to make some significant changes," Ms Allan told the house.

"It's a day like I've certainly never experienced before in over 20 years in this place."

Rather than being separated along party lines, politicians sat apart because of their fight against the invisible killer.

Instead of the usual 88, about 20 MPs sat in the grand green room of the Legislative Assembly, with speaker Colin Brooks joking it was "very easy" for him to identify who was shouting across the chamber and advised MPs against it.

The heckling continued anyway, but it was certainly quieter than before.

The Legislative Council and its colourful array of crossbenchers also sat far apart from one another but it was still too close for the Justice Party's Stuart Grimley.

"It's quite confronting were so close," he told Health Minister Jenny Mikakos while maintaining the recommended 1.5 metres distance.

There were no visitors in the public gallery, no students dragged along by teachers or camera-happy tourists, but there was a lot of hand sanitiser.

Victorian parliament's glittering rooms, which usually play host to special events, were empty.

It's sweeping steps, the perfect spot for people-watching and photo-posing, were bare.

Ms Allan hopes parliament will be back on June 2 but most MPs agree it won't be the same for some time.

Australian Associated Press