Victoria to dump Covid restrictions on Friday, ending vaccinated economy

Big changes have been announced to isolation rules and the vaccinated economy as Victoria loosens more Covid restrictions ahead of the long weekend.

Health Minister Martin Foley has confirmed Victoria will return to normal ahead of the long weekend, with the vaccinated economy to end and Covid household contacts free to leave home.

Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Foley said high vaccination rates and lower case numbers meant major changes to pandemic orders.

Form 11.59pm Friday, vaccination status will no longer be required for patrons to enter pubs and cafes, and check-ins with QR codes will be scrapped.

Masks will no longer be needed in primary schools, retailer and hospitality.

Close contacts of Covid cases will not be required to quarantine, as long as they wear a mask indoors and avoid high-risk areas.

But they will need to take five negative rapid tests over seven days, and health authorities recommend close contacts work from home if possible.

Major events with more than 30,000 people will no longer need approval from public health officials.

Hospitality venues will no longer be required to check people’s vaccine status. Picture: Getty

International travellers without symptoms will also no longer have to get a PCR or rapid test on arrival, but this measure will be recommended.

Unvaccinated travellers will no longer be asked to complete seven days of quarantine.

Anyone who has contracted Covid will be exempt from testing and quarantine for 12 weeks afterwards.

Those who test positive for the virus will still be required to isolate for a week.

Vaccine mandates will remain for some groups of workers.

These include health, food distribution, emergency services, police and education.

Mask rules on public transport and airports remain unchanged, along with mandatory face coverings in sensitive health, aged care and justice settings.

Visitor restrictions in care facilities remain, where residents can have up to five visitors per day if each show a negative rapid antigen test result, or two visitors if no test results are provided.

Chief health officer Brett Sutton recommended a transition away from these mandates over time, with the government set work this out with each individual industry.

Industry groups on Wednesday welcomed the government’s announcement.

Victoria Tourism Industry Council chief executive Felicia Mariani said changes to quarantine and isolation would help bring back visitors to the state.

“The close contact isolation rules have crippled the industry and contributed to the scenes that

we’ve seen over the past week at Melbourne Airport,” she said.

“Today’s significant shifts in close contact rules mean that staff across the industry can get back to work, and businesses can get back to operating in a more reliable way.

“It was also fantastic to hear that events with more than 30,000 participants no longer require pre- approval via the public events framework, which has caused headaches for this important sector since it was implemented.”

Tim Piper, the Victorian head of the Australian Industry Group, said the new rules should help address staff shortages.

“Businesses have been finding the isolation requirements particularly onerous,” he said.

“With workers being required to stay home if they are close contacts, it has placed staffing stresses on many businesses.”

Mr Piper said relaxed mask requirements for workers in shops and cafes would make their lives easier and bring the state back to a more “Covid normal” situation.

Staff shortages at airports created travel chaos across the country. Picture: David Crosling

But opposition health spokesperson Georgie Crozier said the announcement had come too late, arguing rules should’ve been relaxed weeks ago to relieve struggling families and businesses.

“School children should never have been wearing masks, particularly those kids in composite classes. It made no sense. It was divisive,” Ms Crozier said.

“Vax mandates, except in high-risk settings, should’ve been gone weeks ago.

“Close contact isolation rules should’ve been eased weeks ago.

“These decisions have had real impacts on families, on children and on businesses.

“We need to look to the future, but we also need to understand the failures of the government and never allow those to happen again.”

It comes as daily case numbers fell to 8976 on Tuesday, down from 10,293 at the same time last week, and as pressure has been ramping up to ditch the restrictions.

But there was a spike in Wednesday’s figures, with 10,628 cases announced, along with 14 deaths.

Wide vaccine coverage and a flattening Omicron wave enabled the loosening of rules, Mr Foley said.

“We’ve got to this position today because Victoria is one of the most vaccinated places in the world.

“These are sensible measures and they can be taken based on our very high vaccination rates.

“We’ve passed the peak. We are able to look to this group of sensible measures being able to take us into a still challenging winter.”

Mr Sutton said continued restrictions were disproportionate to the current Covid risk.

“That collective effort has safeguarded our community,” Mr Sutton said.

“We had our restrictions to get to a point where we knew we’d be substantially vaccinated.

“Further restrictions aren’t really proportionate or necessary.”

But Mr Sutton warned the pandemic was “not over yet”, and the health system would likely again be under pressure through the winter months.

There are also fears of a “flu comeback” after two years of restrictions.

“Our cooler months are coming. We’re going to be challenged in the healthcare system in winter, as we do every winter,” he said.

“There’ll be lots of other respiratory conditions circulating, so a good time to be protected from Covid.”

Mr Foley called on Victorians to get their flu jabs with cooler weather on the way.

“This is also the start of a flu season and we encourage everybody … to go out and get your flu vaccination jab. To do that ahead of winter is very important,” he said.

“After two seasons of almost zero influence we are expecting a significant outbreak of the flu this winter.”

Scott Morrison on Wednesday welcomed the major changes to Covid rules in Victoria and New South Wales.

“They are getting back to normal. Hallelujah,” the Prime Minister said.

“We’ve been waiting a long time for these sorts of things.

“The rest of the states, I’m sure, will continue down that path.”

Mr Morrison commended Australians for their handling of the pandemic, saying the nation had come through “strongly”.

But the easing of rules also puts the future of Victoria’s new $580m Covid quarantine facility in the spotlight, since travellers will no longer need to test on arrival and the unvaccinated won’t be required to isolate for seven days.

Mr Foley took an opportunity to take a swipe at the Morrison government when quizzed on the future of the facility, saying it “would’ve been nice” if it was built two years ago.

“You can’t rely, sadly, on the commonwealth government when the need is there,” he said.

Originally published as Victoria to dump Covid restrictions on Friday, ending vaccinated economy