Mayor Margaret O'Rourke said the council was looking at a number of things, and that work was still ongoing.

Focus areas included health and hygiene compliance and working with Local Government Victoria to explore whether there was the potential for rate relief for some or all businesses.

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Be.Bendigo was advocating for federal relief packages to kick in faster, chief executive Dennis Bice said.

It was also working with businesses and other stakeholders around adapting to the conditions, including business models and flexibility of employment.

"It's going to be some tough times but, working together, I'm really confident we can continue on for when the better times come," Mr Bice said.

He was pleased to see businesses were re-thinking the way they were doing business to adapt to the circumstances.

"Flexibility around employment is going to be really important," Mr Bice said.

That meant flexibility for employees, too, particularly those who had family members working in the health services sector.

"Our role at Be.Bendigo will clearly be around coordinating with businesses, getting out information, providing them with support and trying to collate what is actually happening around the business community in our region," Mr Bice said.

"This community comes together in terms of challenges and comes together really strongly. We are seeing that across the board and we'll continue to promote that."

He said there was a real risk businesses would not have the capacity to stay open if people did not shop locally wherever possible, with less tourists and little or no foot traffic.

"We've not experienced anything like this before which is why it is important that wherever possible we are encouraging to shop local and help local businesses to survive this turbulent time," Mr Bice said.

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Mr Bice, the City of Greater Bendigo and Bendigo Tourism board chair Finn Vedelsby encouraged people to keep supporting local businesses.

"I understand our community is going to be very conservative with money now," Mr Vedelsby said.

But he encouraged those who usually went out for dinner and could afford to explore options to contact their favourite eateries to find out about new ways they were doing business.

Mr Vedelsby said many businesses had been adding to their online presence in the past two weeks and considering ways to add to their revenue stream.

He also suggested people make reservations, if they were intending to visit their favourite eateries, to help with planning for their dining experience.

"Local business gives our community its flavour and identity," Mr Vedelsby said.

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City of Greater Bendigo strategy and growth director Bernie O'Sullivan said the cancellation of major events and changes to public gathering rules meant COVID-19 was already having a serious impact on local business and services.

"We are seeing many businesses following the strict hygiene advice that is being encouraged by health experts and a number of hospitality businesses separating tables and chairs to help provide more space between customers," Mr O'Sullivan said.

"We are also seeing our businesses asking customers how they can best serve them during this time, so it is important that we respond by supporting them however we can."

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