Picnics among outdoor freedoms granted as Victoria records 514 new COVID cases
Fully vaccinated Melburnians can meet up outdoors with one other household in groups of up to five under the state’s new road map to reopening, a small concession offered to ease the burden of lockdown and celebrate the state hitting a first dose vaccination target of 70 per cent.
From Saturday in Melbourne, there will be another reason to leave home â€" to socialise with another person. People who are fully vaccinated will be given additional leeway, with up to five adults and their dependents from two households permitted to meet outside if they’ve all received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
The outdoor groupings rely on an honour system and police will not be questioning the vaccination status of people meeting for a picnic.
“We can’t literally have a situation where we are going park by park, picnic by picnic,†Premier Daniel Andrews said.
As well as limited outdoor gatherings such as picnics, the changes from 11.59pm Friday also include the widening of the five-kilometre movement limit to 10 kilometres, the reopening of outdoor gyms and skate parks and Melburnians will be able to exercise for four hours per day, up from two.
People in Melbourne and Ballarat will also be able to exercise outdoors with a personal trainer and up to five people will be permitted to be involved in broadcast activities at indoor physical recreation and sport venues.
However, Melbourne will continue to live under a curfew, with Mr Andrews stating he had received no health advice to lift the restriction and has therefore left it in place.
Mr Andrews announced the minor easing of rules as the state neared its 70 per cent first-dose vaccination target. The latest numbers show 69.3 per cent of Victorians over 16 have received one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, and the figure is expected to tick over 70 per cent on Thursday.
Picnics are back on the blanket from Saturday.Credit:Daniel Pockett/Getty Images
Officials decided against waiting until Sunday to grant additional freedoms to Victorians, but the plan to release the road map at the end of this weekend remains.
The plan is expected to set out how stranded Victorians can come home, and will likely include home quarantine.
There will also be some changes to COVID-19 rules in regional Victoria, excluding Ballarat.
From 11.59pm Friday night, regional indoor gyms and pools can reopen, although density limits will apply and spas, saunas and steam rooms are excluded.
Hydrotherapy and swimming lessons may occur. Tour transport is allowed with up to 10 people per vehicle, however, there is no change to the current rules which allow movement around the state and public gatherings of up to 10 people.
The announcements come as the state records 514 new local cases, a record for the current Delta outbreak, and is the first time since August last year that more than 500 cases have been reported in a single day.
Of the new cases, 148 have been linked to known clusters, meaning more than 350 cases remain a mystery.
Breakdown of Thursday’s 514 new local casesVictoria’s COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar provided a breakdown of the state’s new 514 local cases during the daily coronavirus briefing.
Victorian COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar said authorities were seeing more COVID-19 cases in Melbourne’s south-east.
“If you’re in the south-eastern suburbs â€" around Dandenong, around Keysborough, around Clyde North â€" if you’ve got any symptoms whatsoever, or please just check those exposure sites, we really need to see people coming forward to get tested in that part of our city,†Mr Weimar said.
“We think we’re starting to see some seeding out now, particularly from essential workers ... moving from the north and west into the south-east, and obviously, we’re keen to stop it wherever we possibly can.“
More than 81,000 vaccine doses were administered in Victoria on Wednesday, including 41,758 at state hubs, while 61,961 test results were processed â€" a 12 per cent increase in the number of tests reported the previous day.
There are now 4370 active cases in the state.
Ballarat re-enters lockdownBallarat residents began their first day of a week-long snap lockdown on Thursday as the number of positive cases in the city of about 100,000 climbed to six.
One of the three new cases in Ballarat is a mystery case, Mr Weimar said.
Changes for construction workersMr Andrews also announced on Thursday that construction workers will need to get vaccinated if they want to keep working.
Workers in the industry will need to show evidence to their employer that they have had a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by 11.59pm on Thursday, September 23.
Limited medical exemptions and proof-of-booking exceptions will apply, in line with requirements for aged care workers.
Church, Alfred hospital’s emergency centre added as exposure sitesA Melbourne church and emergency department are among the COVID-19 exposure sites identified by Victorian health authorities on Thursday.
St Joseph Melkite Catholic Church at Fairfield was listed as a tier-1 exposure site across three days, while Casey Hospital’s emergency department waiting room at Berwick, in Melbourne’s south-east, was declared a tier-1 site for an exposure on Tuesday, between 8.28pm and 11.36pm.
Also declared tier-1 sites were a childcare at Diamond Creek and TopGear Wheels and Tyres in Heidelberg West - both in Melbourne’s north-east.
The Alfred’s emergency and trauma centre was listed as a tier-1 exposure site on Wednesday evening, as was a construction site and an early learning centre attached to a junior school in Ballarat.
An Alfred Health spokesperson said a patient visited the emergency department on Tuesday night and tested positive for COVID-19.
Meanwhile, a construction site in Cerberus Lane in Canadian, a suburb of Ballarat, was listed as a tier-1 exposure site on Wednesday night, after a case attended the worksite on September 10 from 6.50am to 5.30pm.
Clarendon College’s Early Learning Centre is also a tier-1 exposure site on September 10, from 8.15am to 9am.
But The Ballarat Courier is reporting anyone who attended the Mair Street campus, including the junior school, at any time last Friday is now subject to a 48-hour “stop and stay†directive, meaning they must go home immediately and get tested after a child tested positive.
“Given the speed with which the Delta variant is moving from person to person, anyone associated with the school, and their household, is asked to quarantine for 48 hours in the first instance,†Grampians Public Health clinical director Dr Karen Aarons wrote to parents.
A playground, an IGA and two shops have also been added to the list of exposure sites in the city.
Premier Daniel Andrews, Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton and COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar on Wednesday.Credit: Eddie Jim
No guidance for Wodonga as Albury re-enters lockdownNo lockdown has been announced for Wodonga, despite its sister city over the border Albury going into lockdown.
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard announced the lockdown for Albury on Thursday after two mystery cases were detected in the border city.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said while there would be “knock-on effects†for Wodonga, he did not say the city would join Albury in lockdown.
“In some many ways they are one place,†Mr Andrews said.
“We might have to reach out and try and support them.â€
A train service from Sydney to Albury has also been listed as an exposure site.
Albury-Wodonga newspaper The Border Mail also reports there are exposure sites - a cafe and a restaurant - in the nearby Victorian town of Beechworth.
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clarificationAn earlier version of this story stated the new rules would apply from Friday.
Michael Fowler is a state political reporter for The Age. Get in touch: michael.fowler@theage.com.au.Connect via Twitter or email.
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