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Queensland restrictions eased for Mother's Day: Here's what is allowed
By Lydia Lynch and Toby Crockford
Two households will be allowed to congregate inside Queensland homes from Sunday as gathering restrictions are eased in time for Mother's Day.
As many as five people, who live together, will be allowed to travel to another household.
"So, I'm sure there's a lot of mums out there who'd love to see one household in the morning and another in the afternoon and another in the evening," Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said.
"That could happen, but they can't all go at the same time."
The new visiting rule is not restricted to families - if you live with four friends, you will be allowed to visit another house as long as everyone keeps a 1.5-metre distance from one another.
"And we can do that in Queensland because of the great job everyone's been doing," Dr Young said.
Gathering restrictions have been eased in Queensland in time for Mother’s Day.Credit: iStock
"It's about two households coming together, and we don't think that will increase risk."
Dr Young says family members can travel more than 50 kilometres from home to visit their family this Sunday, as long as they simply go to their family and return home - not detour into the community, to shopping centres, for example.
The eased restrictions will remain in place past Mother's Day, unless there is a major cluster of cases.
"We saw last weekend there were a few little break-outs but, in the main, people heard the message loudly," Dr Young said.
Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll said police would not be knocking on doors to check how many people were inside a home, unless they received a complaint from neighbours.
"We’ve always said that we will not be knocking on people’s doors," she said.
"We expect people to do the right thing and, in essence, people have.
"We only really knock on people’s doors when we have complaints."
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the easing of restrictions was made possible by low levels of infections.
Two more Queenslanders tested positive for COVID-19 since Wednesday and both of those people live on the Gold Coast.
Of the more than 125,000 tests conducted since January, 1045 have returned a positive result and just 50 cases remain active.
The eased restrictions will come one week after Queenslanders were allowed to picnic, take a recreational drive and go shopping for "non-essential" items.
National cabinet was set to meet on Friday to discuss further easing of lockdowns.