Snap five-day Vic lockdown to end on time

THE five-day lockdown will end on time, with authorities confident the “circuit breaker” has contained the Holiday Inn outbreak.

Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed the snap lockdown would lift at 11.59pm on Wednesday as planned, after the state recorded no new COVID-19 cases.

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.

“I’m not prepared to pretend to the Victorian community that this is over,” Mr Andrews said.

“There can be some notice period but we don’t have the luxury of giving people a month’s notice.

“I’m just not in the business of ignoring advice, or shopping around for advice that suits me.”

The decision to lift the five-day lockdown was rubber-stamped in a meeting of senior government ministers on Wednesday morning.

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.

The stay-at-home order that only allow people to leave home for essential work, shopping, care and exercise – will be repealed along with the five-kilometre travel rule.

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.

Schools will reopen on Thursday after shutting down for three days and shutdown businesses can resume trading.

The full list of changes includes:

No longer four reasons to leave home. The five-kilometre restriction will no longer apply.

Restaurants and retail can reopen as can community facilities, entertainment venues and all other public places – although some additional limits on crowd sizes will be in place.

Students will be able to head back to school. Workers will be able to get back to work.

For offices – both public and private – a 50 per cent on site capacity will apply.

Visitors to the home are limited to five per day, while public gatherings with friends and family are limited to 20.

Details on public events planned for this weekend will be announced later today.

 

-With AAP