Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has confirmed the state will further ease coronavirus restrictions on June 22, allowing cinemas and theatres to reopen and boosting customer capacity for hospitality venues.
Key points:
- From June 22, up to 50 people will be allowed inside a range of venues including cinemas, theatres and cafes
- But a density rule of 4 square metres per customer will remain
- People will be able to buy a drink at a pub or restaurant without ordering a meal
Under the changes, the number of people allowed inside enclosed spaces at cafes, restaurants, pubs, cinemas, concert venues, theatres, libraries and community centres and halls will rise from 20 to 50.
But the venues will remain subject to a density requirement of one customer per 4 square metres, meaning entry will need to be carefully restricted by businesses and some will be unable to reach the 50-person cap in place.
Those buying a drink at a Victorian venue will no longer be required to purchase a meal, but will still need to leave their contact details and will be served at a table, not the bar.
Indoor sports centres and gyms will also be able to reopen to a maximum of 20 people per space and a cap of 10 people per group for adults.
Standalone TAB betting facilities and TABs in pubs will be able to reopen as well, subject to the same density restrictions.
Victoria's ski season is allowed to open from June 22, but the use of shared sporting equipment will be minimised, with no sharing of equipment that touches the face or head such as goggles or masks.
From June 22, non-contact competition sports will be allowed for adults and full-contact training and competitions allowed for children.
The directive for all Victorians who can work from home to continue to do so remains in place for the rest of June.
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton also flagged that local football teams, soccer clubs and other contact sports should be able to resume training for adults from July 13, with full competitions allowed one week later on July 20.
The fine details of the lifted restrictions can be found on the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) website.
It comes as New South Wales announced it would scrap its 50-person limit on indoor spaces from July, in line with changes agreed to at National Cabinet on Friday.
New cases include outbreak linked to doctor case
The announcement of eased restrictions came as the state recorded nine new coronavirus cases, five of which were linked to known outbreaks.
Professor Sutton said two of the case were linked to an outbreak involving a doctor identified in yesterday's cases.
The GP had worked at three Melbourne clinics while asymptomatic and was tested after being informed they were a close contact of someone with the virus.
Two household contacts of that original coronavirus case have since been diagnosed with COVID-19, taking the total in that outbreak to four, health authorities said.
A second new outbreak was also identified yesterday among "interconnected family households" in Melbourne's north and south-east, DHHS said in a statement.
Three of the latest cases have been linked to one previously confirmed case in the family, taking the total in that outbreak to four.
Professor Sutton said eight close contacts were being followed up at Lilydale Medical Clinic, nine patients at Croydon Family Practice and 10 close contacts at Cedar Medical Clinic in Coburg.
Three of today's new cases are in returned travellers in hotel quarantine.
"We do expect four, to five, to six new hotel quarantine cases every day as returning permanent residents come back to Victoria and we host them here through their quarantine period," Professor Sutton said.
"But they're a risk that can be managed."
The final new case today was in a person who was in hospital and was still being investigated, he said.
Professor Sutton said there had been one community transmission case per day in the last couple of weeks, which represented a downwards trend from the previous fortnight.
"We had a day of no community transmission in Australia for the first time since March. So the general trend is really positive."
Coronavirus testing to be targeted to areas with low rates
Mr Andrews said Victoria's testing rate of 8,787 tests per 100,000 people would put the state among the top five nations in the world if it were a country.
"The reason that's important is it gives us a contemporary sense of how much virus is in the community, how it's presenting … it just gives you evidence and facts, rather than guesswork," he said.
He said National Cabinet had reconfirmed on Friday that the country's strategy remained suppression, not elimination.
"A day with zero cases is good, but not every day has to be zero cases in order for us to be able to slowly, cautiously, gradually open up," he said.
"We are going to see more cases, we are going to see outbreaks, that's what a suppression strategy is all about."
Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said since the start of the month, 81,000 tests had revealed 12 cases of community transmission, where the source of the infection could not be traced back to a known outbreak or returned traveller.
Ms Mikakos said authorities were going to begin focusing testing on some communities that had lower testing rates in recent weeks.
"We're going to focus on some regional communities that have had low testing rates to date, like Mildura and Kyabram, as well as some of our suburbs such as Dandenong and Brimbank that have had lower testing rates to date," she said.
"Over the next few weeks we're going to move to different communities, such as the Melbourne CBD, Moreland, Melton, Colac Otway Shire, Whittlesea, Surf Coast Shire, Hume and Wyndham City."
The Minister said the Government was also ramping up its advertising in a range of languages to ensure the public health message to get tested for even the mildest symptoms was reaching Victorian communities for whom English was not a first language.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiaWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTA2LTE0L3ZpY3Rvcmlhbi1jb3JvbmF2aXJ1cy1yZXN0cmljdGlvbnMtd2lsbC1lYXNlLWZyb20tanVuZS0yMi8xMjM1MzUzMNIBJ2h0dHBzOi8vYW1wLmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvYXJ0aWNsZS8xMjM1MzUzMA?oc=5
2020-06-14 03:20:28Z
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