COVID-19 restrictions to ease again for regional Victoria

THE state government will again ease its coronavirus restrictions for regional Victoria this Friday, June 11.

Acting Premier James Merlino announced the changes this morning for both inside and outside Melbourne, on the advice of the Chief Health Officer and said further loosening of restrictions would likely occur next week.

As of 11.59pm tomorrow (Thursday, June 10), the changes to apply in regional Victoria include:

• Visitors to homes will be allowed, limited to two adults per day plus their dependents
• Public gatherings will increase to 20 people
• Restaurants and cafes can open to a maximum of 150 per venue for seated service, including up to 75 allowed indoors
• Religious ceremonies will be capped at 150 per venue, with no more than people allowed indoors
• Funerals will be limited to 75 people, while weddings will be limited to 20
• Community sport is back for all ages, both for training and for competition.

QR check-ins will be made compulsory for all workplaces, with very limited exemptions.

“Previously it has only been mandatory for customer-facing services, but through this outbreak we have seen a number of cases occur in office settings, so we want to take the next step on this,” Mr Merlino said.

“We will be looking to consult with industry over the next few days around implementation and we will finalise the details next week ahead of the requirements coming into effect.”

Regional Victorians are still able to travel around regional Victoria, but Melburnians are not.

Melbourne will move out of lockdown this Friday to similar settings now in effect in regional Victoria (including the lifting of the five reasons to leave home, no face masks outside, and face-to-face learning at schools), and Mr Merlino said travel restrictions in and out of Melbourne could lift next week.

“We will have more to say about what the next stages of easing will look like next week, but I want to assure people that are subject to the public health advice, the epidemiological conditions through the next week, we expect to be, next Thursday night, that the original metro divisions will come down and we will be able to travel more freely around the state again.

“For Melbourne, we will be looking to further ease restrictions on venues, community sport will be able to come back for competition, so again, this allows local sporting clubs to start planning for what the weekend after next looks like.

“We want to see what more can be done to further ease restrictions safely on businesses, without jeopardising the gains we have made, and we will be looking again to make some further changes for regional Victoria.”

For the latest updates on Victoria’s coronavirus settings, head to the Department of Human Health and Services website.