A breakdown of yesterday’s changes to the metro Melbourne lockdown.
As of 11:59pm last night, Melbourne inched closer to reopening with the announcement of a few changes to restrictions around socialising, leaving the house and working outside.
The rule limiting Melburnians from travelling further than 5km from their home for exercise or shopping has been increased to 25km while the two-hour cap on socialising and exercise has been dropped completely.
The limit on how many people can gather outside has been eased from five people to ten people, though they will still need to be from no more than two households. This applies to both exercising and socialising.
Outdoor sports such as golf, tennis and skating will be allowed while outdoor pools will also reopen for a maximum of 30 swimmers. Indoor pools will be allowed to open for one-on-one hydrotherapy with a health professional.
Hairdressers and barbers can also reopen, though they will be required to follow safety protocols, outdoor real estate auctions will be allowed with a maximum of ten people and commercial real estate inspections can resume with one agent and one prospective tenant or buyer.
There will also be a return of allied health services, outdoor non-essential home maintenance and repairs, external car washing, mobile pet grooming, outdoor professional photography, letterboxing and solar power installation.
Melbourne is expected to move to the next step of its roadmap to reopening at 11:59pm on Sunday November 1.
The next step will see the rules around socialising relaxed further with the four reasons to leave home removed and a maximum of two visitors plus dependents allowed in the home once a day.
There will also be significant changes to business and public gatherings, with retail and hospitality to return – the latter with a maximum of 20 people inside and 50 people outside; a maximum of ten people at weddings and no more than 20 mourners at funerals; beauty and personal services permitted; 20 people allowed for outdoor religious gatherings; and outdoor seated entertainment for a maximum of 50 people or 25 per cent of the venue’s seat capacity.
Premier Dan Andrews said that if case number remain low over the next week, some of the changes scheduled for November 1 could be brought forward to next weekend.
Statement on further easing of restrictions in Melbourne and regional Victoria: pic.twitter.com/aGrrU3AFWO
— Dan Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) October 18, 2020
Head to the DHHS website for more information.
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