Under the new guidelines, businesses such as cafes and restaurants will only offer takeaway services.

Horsham's Exchange Hotel publican Nick Murray said workers were shattered.

"It's devastating to be locked down again after we've been trading so well," he said.

"We just can't keep shutting down. Everyone has food deliveries today that we've got to freeze down or try and use. The financial impact is just devastating.

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"We fully understand the reasons that they've got to lock the state down, but it just highlights the fact [the government] need to get their [act] together and get a hold on these smaller outbreaks."

However, Mr Murray remains optimistic and said he and his staff would use the time to do odd jobs around the hotel that "can't be done when you're trading seven days".

Damon Henrickson, who owns the popular Flame Brothers restaurant in Halls Gap, voiced similar concerns.

"It's definitely frustrating. I can understand why they've done it, but it doesn't make it any easier," he said.

According to Mr Henrickson, Flame Brothers can have a thousand people through the restaurant's doors on weekends.

"I guess in dollars, it's probably going to cost me anywhere between $25,000 and $30,000 just over the weekend. For the week it could be up to $50,000."

"It costs you money now, but it also costs you money in the future because people are uncertain about whether they can and can't come or when they should book, or even if they can."

"It's seven days of lost trade, but then it's also potentially bookings that haven't been made that might have made bad in that time."

The lockdown news came at an awful time for Mr Henrickson, who planned to open a fish and chip shop in Halls Gap this weekend.

"We had our final inspections booked for tomorrow," Mr Henrickson said.

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Maria Whitford, the General Manager of Ararat RSL, said the lockdown would significantly impact the local community.

"We've just started to ramp up again, so it will be significant. It will hurt the staff. They lose hours, then there's no money being spent in town. " Ms Whitford said.

"It has a flow on effect to the entire economy of the local community," she said.

However, Ms Whitford said, after previous lockdowns, she and her staff were well-practised with lockdown protocols.

"We can pivot this business fairly quickly, now we know what we need to do, we can just do it and that seems to work. It won't be great, but we will get through it." she said.

Bill Lovel, the publican of the Natimuk Hotel, also said that there would be a flow-on effect with staffing levels.

"Obviously we won't need the same amount of staff this week," Mr Lovel said.

Mr Lovel said he was more concerned about whether the lockdown would go beyond seven days.

"A week probably won't make a huge difference, but if it goes on longer than a week then it will have a fair impact," he said.

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