THE five-day lockdown will end on time, with authorities confident the “circuit breaker” has contained the Holiday Inn outbreak.<\/p>\n
Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed the snap lockdown would lift at 11.59pm on Wednesday as planned, after the state recorded no\u00a0new COVID-19 cases.<\/p>\n
However he also said he could not guarantee Victorians that lockdowns were a thing of the past after enduring its third in less than 12 months.<\/p>\n
“I’m not prepared to pretend to the Victorian community that this is over,” Mr Andrews said.<\/p>\n
“There can be some notice period but we don’t have the luxury of giving people a month’s notice.<\/p>\n
“I’m just not in the business of ignoring advice, or shopping around for advice that suits me.”<\/p>\n
The decision to lift the five-day lockdown was rubber-stamped in a meeting of senior government ministers on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n
Victorians were locked down under stage four restrictions on Friday as health officials sought to slow the spread of a cluster stemming from the Holiday Inn quarantine hotel at Melbourne Airport.<\/p>\n
The stay-at-home order that\u00a0only allow people to leave home for essential work, shopping, care and exercise –\u00a0will be repealed along with the five-kilometre travel rule.<\/p>\n
Masks will remain mandatory both indoors and outdoors where social distancing isn’t possible and the home gathering limit has been tightened to five visitors.<\/p>\n
Schools will reopen on Thursday after shutting down for three days and shutdown businesses can resume trading.<\/p>\n
The full list of changes includes:<\/p>\n
No longer four reasons to leave home. The five-kilometre restriction will no longer apply.<\/p>\n
Restaurants and retail can reopen as can community facilities, entertainment venues and all other public places \u2013 although some additional limits on crowd sizes will be in place.<\/p>\n
Students will be able to head back to school. Workers will be able to get back to work.<\/p>\n
For offices \u2013 both public and private \u2013 a 50 per cent on site capacity will apply.<\/p>\n
Visitors to the home are limited to five per day, while public gatherings with friends and family are limited to 20.<\/p>\n
Details on public events planned for this weekend will be announced later today.<\/p>\n
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