Fully-vaccinated Victorians are set to return to near normal life on November 24th as all major Covid-19 restrictions – except for two – are scrapped when the state is forecast to hit its 90 per cent double-vaccination target.
Travel between Melbourne and regional Victoria will be allowed from 6pm on Friday when the 80 per cent double-vaccination target is expected to be reached – in time for the Melbourne Cup long weekend.
Victoria recorded 1,935 new Covid cases and 11 deaths on Sunday as the Andrews Government announced a raft of changes to its freedom roadmap thanks to soaring vaccination rates.
Premier Daniel Andrews said 91.2 per cent of Victorians have had a first dose and 73.7 per cent are fully-vaccinated.
He also announced that unvaccinated Victorians will be effectively ‘locked out’ of the state economy until 2023.
Victoria recorded 1,935 new Covid cases 11 additional deaths on Sunday as the government announced a raft of oncoming changes to restrictions. Pictured: Women enjoy a drink in Melbourne on Friday after lockdown restrictions were eased
From 6pm on October 29, Victoria will move to the ’80 per cent settings’, meaning residents will be able to move freely across the state.
Outdoor masks will be scrapped, public gatherings outdoor will increase from 15 to 30 people, and those who are fully-vaccinated will be allowed to return to work.
Hospitality, retail, gyms, health and beauty services will be open – with no capacity limit indoors and a cap of 500 outdoors – but the one per per four sqm rule will apply.
Weddings, funerals, and religious gatherings will be subject to the same capacity limits, so long as guests have received both doses of a Covid jab.
Cinemas, theatres, nightclubs and karaoke venues will also reopen to the fully vaccinated – in line with capacity limits – and public events can restart for up to 5,000 people.
Indoor entertainment venues will be able to reopen at 75 per cent capacity, allowing up to 1000 fully-vaccinated patrons on the premises, while outdoor seated and not-seated venues are allowed up to 5000.
Mr Andrews said another round of rules will be when 90 per cent of over 12s are fully-vaccinated – forecast to be hit on 24 November.
‘We asked you to get vaccinated. You have done that in record time any record numbers and that means we have to open the place up,’ Mr Andrews said.
Victorians will only be required to wear masks in high-risk indoor-settings from next month. Pictured: Melburnians enjoy a drink during the city’s first night out of lockdown
Premier Dan Andrews stressed that only the fully-vaccinated will be able to enjoy Covid-19 freedoms. Pictured: Women walk through locked-down Melbourne in August
After almost two years of tough restrictions, the changes will include scrapping all venue capacity limits – which will mean an end to working from home.
The number of visitors allowed in a home will not be limited – neither will the size of outdoor gatherings.
Major sporting games will be able to host maximum capacity crowds, allowing up more than 80,000 fans to potentially pack into the MCG for the Boxing Day Test.
Mask will no longer need to be worn – except for high-risk indoor settings such as public transport, prisons, hospitals, and aged care.
Once the 90 per cent target is hit, Mr Andrews said there would only be ‘two rules’.
‘Some masks in some settings, principally indoors, where there is a greater risk, and the economy being open to you only if you have had two shots, only if you are fully vaccinated,’ he said.
‘They are two rules that be enduring. They are the two rules that will be with us right throughout 2022.’
Mr Andrews stressed that only the fully-vaccinated will be able to enjoy eased restrictions.
‘We will retain the vaccinated economy, all those requirements, although settings, where you only get in if you are double vaccinated, and you can tap and verify that for everybody,’ he said.
‘In fact, we will add to the vaccinated economy by asking and mandating that all non-essential retail will have to be vaccinated as well, both to go in, and also to work in those settings.’
The Victorian government will scrap capacity limits for hospitality venues once 90 per cent of over 12s are fully vaccinated. Pictured: People line up outside a restaurant in Melbourne on Friday
Hospitality, retail, health and beauty services will be open – with no capacity limit indoors and a cap of 500 outdoors – from next week
Meanwhile, schoolchildren who are close contacts of Covid-19 cases will be able to return to the classroom if they submit a negative a negative rapid test result under a new pilot program.
The Victorian government is trialling 15-minute antigen tests on students as part of a plan to use them across the state in a bid to cut down on the number of days children have to spend away from the classroom due to a fellow student testing positive, The Age reports.
If the trial is successful, rapid tests will be rolled out across society to combat the economic loss created by groups being locked out of work for days due to being contacts of the infected or having been at an exposure site.
The select schools participating in the trials will be responsible for collecting and managing the tests and results, rather than VIC Health, as authorities move to give organisations a bigger role in managing cases and outbreaks.
The news comes as Melbourne enjoys its first weekend since the city’s 77-day lockdown ended.
Despite restrictions being eased, Covid cases have continued to rise – with almost 25,000 actives infections being managed across the state.
There are 787 people in hospital of which 146 are in intensive care, with 93 of those patients on a ventilator. The majority – 93 per cent – of those in intensive care are unvaccinated.
The 11 deaths recorded in the 24 hours to 8pm on Saturday bring the death toll from the current Delta outbreak to 223. The deaths included one person in their 50s, one in their 60s, four in their 70s, three in their 80s and two in their 90s.
