Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has stamped his personal authority over an 8pm curfew imposed across Melbourne, after Police Commissioner Shane Patton said police were only told "a couple of hours" before it began.

The state's Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton had revealed a day earlier that the curfew, which has been in place for 58 days, was not his idea either and health experts including the Grattan Institute’s Stephen Duckett say evidence for a curfew is "very, very limited".