Road map to pandemic recovery chartered

DUAL plans for regional Victoria and metropolitan Melbourne to emerge from the current round of COVID-19 lockdown have been announced by Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews.

Regional Victoria, including Ballarat and Golden Plains will move to what’s being called step two of the plan from 11.59pm on Sunday, 13 September.

When current stage three restrictions are taken into account, that amounts changes including five people from two households able to gather outdoors, while playgrounds, outdoor pools, childcare centres and some businesses will reopen.

There will be no limit on how much or how long you can be outside of the home for recreation.

“Regional Victoria has essentially completely different settings as it stands now,” said Mr Andrews. “They essentially move to step two and then we will reassess based on total numbers over a 14-day period.

“We think regional Victrola will be able to move to the third step quite soon. It’ll be perhaps a matter of weeks before regional Victoria can move to a very different range of settings compared to metropolitan Melbourne.

“Essentially each of these steps are less than we would like to do. We would all like to open up as quickly as possible. But that is not the nature of this virus. It spreads wickedly and silently.

“If we look at the experience in Colac over just the last few days, one case has led to 24 people in just a few days in one town experiencing this virus.”

Also under step two, weddings and outdoor religious services will be capped at five people, while funerals at 10.

Interstate travel will not be allowed, all entertainment venues will remain closed, as will camping and accommodation, unless there’s a purpose for the activity.

Mr Andrews said with active and new cases in the Geelong region still a concern, authorities were keeping a close eye on that area, with scope to activate further or delay roll back of restrictions if needs be.

“The Geelong corridor is of some concern to us,” he said. “While we haven’t redefined that it remains part of regional Victoria for the purposes of these rules, it’s fair to say Geelong is on close watch and we will monitor the number of cases in the Geelong area.

“We wouldn’t want a situation where the pre-conditions for moving to another set of rules for all of regional Victoria we’re to held back because of case numbers just in one area.”

If numbers continue to decrease in regional Victoria, moving to step three, four and what’s being termed the “last step” in a “COVID-normal” life could come faster than metro Melbourne.

Under step two of the Melbourne plan school for Prep, grades 1 and 2 pupils and years 11, 12 and 10 VCAL students, as well as special schools, would return after the school holidays. It is not clear how that will apply to regional Victoria.

In Melbourne the current stage four restrictions have been extended by two weeks from 11.59pm on 13 September with some changes.

Changes include the curfew eased to 9pm, with two hours exercise, and social bubbles extended to singles so they can buddy up with another person with no five-kilometre rule but still limited to only two people.

People in metro Melbourne will also now get two hours outside, not one.

Step two restrictions in Melbourne are similar to those in Regional Victoria and will kick in if the average daily case numbers are low enough after 28 September, set at between 30-50

Step three in Melbourne will begin if the daily average case numbers drop below five from 26 October and could include no curfew, no restrictions leaving home, with 10 people able to gather outdoors for recreation, while retail, hairdressing and hospitality reopening and a return to non-contact adult sport.

The last step, tentatively pencilled in from 23 November in Melbourne would see 50 people allowed to gather outdoors, up to 20 visitors in a home, all retail open, the real estate sector reopened, and hospitality set at 20 seated patrons and a 50 person cap.

The last step is what Mr Andrews described as “COVID-normal” with most restrictions dropped. The road map dates do not currently apply to regional Victoria and could be accelerated in Ballarat and Geelong if the case numbers are low enough.

“The modelling suggests the if we open up to fast, we’re not opening up at all, we’re just beginning a third wave and we will back in and out of restrictions, in and out of lockdown, before the end of the year,” he said.

“We can’t run out of lockdown. We have to take steady and safe steps… to find that COVID-normal.”

The announcement of the roadmap came on day 63 new cases across the state with five deaths added to the pandemic total of 666.

There are currently two active cases of COVID-19 in Ballarat, with no new cases recorded overnight.

Read a full statement here.