The pain and anguish of stage three lockdown restrictions will remain in place for COVID-free north-east Victoria for the foreseeable future with the biggest impact to be felt by small business.
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Pubs, cafes and restaurants in Wodonga and the wider region will remain shut, students will learn from home until the commencement of term four and mask wearing is still compulsory from next Sunday.
Restrictions will be initially eased only if case numbers in regional Victoria in the past 14 days average less than five and there are zero cases in regional Victoria, with an unknown source in measurements being instantly condemned as too harsh and unrealistic
"November 23 is still a long way away for a municipality that has had two cases in total and no active cases for almost two months," Business Wodonga chairman Graham Jenkin said.
"There will be businesses that won't survive this extended lockdown and it is just heart-breaking for many of them.
"It's also devastating for employees who rely on those businesses being open.
"This road map out must be re-visited."
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BeanStation Cafe owner Rod Ayton said the announcement was deflating.
"Where we are with no cases and no case for a while it is just disheartening," he said.
"We were hoping we were going back to stage two with 20 seated inside and 20 seated out."
Mr Ayton was also critical of the lack of focus on regional Victoria during Mr Andrews' press conference, but his concern was for staff.
"I'm losing staff hand-over-fist because I don't know when I can offer them work," he said.
"I've had staff hanging off trying to do the right thing by us and we've been trying to do the right thing by them.
"But they can't hang off any longer, they've got to find jobs elsewhere.
"JobKeeper has been our saving grace."
There are presently 98 active cases in regional Victoria including a spike in cases at Colac - more than 450 kilometres from Wodonga with zero active cases.
Businessman Bill Perry, who owns pubs in Wodonga and Melbourne and a gym in Wodonga, was also despondent about regional businesses not being able to reboot for a second time from an extended lockdown period.
"The thing I am most dismayed about is regional Victoria being held to ransom because of the case numbers in the western suburbs of Melbourne," he said.
"Then you look at Wodonga zero, Indigo zero, Wangaratta zero, Towong zero, but regional Victoria is still being closed down."
