Coronavirus restrictions: Everything that’s changing in Victoria
Some students will return to the classroom in two weeks, you can go fishing or play golf again, and have up to ten people at your wedding. Here’s where you can go, what you can do and what will reopen.
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Premier Daniel Andrews has announced that Victorian students will start to return to school from May 26, just two weeks away.
Prep, Grade 1 and 2 and Year 11 and 12 will return to school on May 26, while other levels will go back to the classroom on June 9.
It comes after the premier announced yesterday that it was time for Victoria to “take a small first step” out of coronavirus lockdown and announced the first stage in easing restrictions across Victoria.
He stressed these were the “first, safe, cautious and appropriate steps to get back to normal life”.
STUDENTS GOING BACK TO SCHOOL:
* Teachers back for pupil-free day on May 25
* Prep, Grade 1 and 2, year 11 and 12 to return to school May 26
* Other year levels to return June 9
* Special schools resume on May 26
* Drop off and pick ups are to be staggered
* Lunch and play times to be staggered
* No camps, assemblies, excursions or sports
* Students to drink only from water bottles not shared taps
* Teachers to have socially distanced workspaces
* Schools to be cleaned every day to end of Term 3
CHANGES TO RESTRICTIONS FROM 11.59PM, TUESDAY:
* Five people can visit your home
* 10 people outdoors
* Work from home still, if you can
* 10 guests at weddings including participants
* 20 people at funerals indoors, 30 outdoors
* Hairdressers can open unless they can’t meet social distancing requirements
* Only rules for shops are social distancing and cleaning
* Auctions can have 10 people plus those running the auction, same for opens
* Cafes and restaurants remain takeaway only
* Hiking, fishing, hunting, diving and other recreational activities allowed in state parks in gatherings of 10 or less
* Playgrounds, outdoor gyms and skate parks remain closed except for exercise
* Outdoor boot camps can resume with 10 people but gyms remain closed
FIVE GUESTS IN YOUR HOME
“They should be family and friends (limited to aid contact tracing if transmission occurs),” Premier Andrews says.
Mr Andrews urged Victorians to still stay home when they can, but said this fifth reason to leave the house had been added.
“This is not an invitation to have a dinner party at every house, every night,” he said.
“We have to use our common sense, we have to be cautious, we have to recognise that this is far from over.
“It’s not about having a rotating roster of acquaintances and associates – or your third best friend from primary school – over for a visit. This is about seeing those you need to – if you need to.”
GROUPS OF NO MORE THAN 10 TO PARTICIPATE IN OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES
Hiking, fishing, playing golf, kicking a footy are allowed, so long as hygiene and social distancing measures are in place.
Some national parks and state parks will reopen, but camping is still banned.
“There’s no overnight stay, but if you want to drive to the beach to have a surf, or you want to go and visit family and friends you can do that,” Mr Andrews says.
“This is mainly about training and social activity. It’s not about a return to a full Auskick program, not amateur footy coming back at pace.
“People want to go for a hike, want to go fishing, want to go in a tinny, you can’t have 10 people in a boat that doesn’t allow you to be 1.5m apart. You might be able to play golf, but there won’t be rakes in the bunkers, people won’t be milling around the clubhouse and it will be shut.”
CHANGES TO FUNERALS, WEDDINGS, RELIGIOUS SERVICES
“There are some further changes to funerals, to weddings, to real estate auctions, to religious observance, small private prayer and other similar services – not a full mass, not a full service – but some very discreet, we think, appropriate changes there,” Mr Andrews says.
You can have 10 guests at a wedding including the participants, 20 people at funerals indoors or 30 outdoors and real estate auctions can have 10 people plus those running it and 10 people at an open for inspection.
CHANGES TO REAL ESTATE SERVICES
Auctions and inspections will be allowed with attendance limits of 10 people, in addition to the “minimum number of people reasonably required to facilitate” them and residences’ occupants.
Agents will be required to keep records of attendees’ names and contact details, to “assist in contact tracing if required”, and enforce social distancing and hygiene practices.
CHANGES TO COMMUNITY FACILITIES
Counselling services, community services like Alcoholics Anonymous to resume.
“Some counselling services which we believe are really very important, some council facilities, community centres, that run Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, counselling and other integral and important community meetings, they will be allowed but again, no more than 10 and there will be physical distancing and all of the other usual arrangements,” Mr Andrews says.
BOOT CAMPS ARE BACK, BUT GYMS STILL BANNED
Hundreds of feet will start hitting the pavement again this week as restrictions on exercise and group training are eased.
Premier Daniel Andrews announced on Monday training could resume outdoors for personal trainers, boot camps and the alike with up to ten clients as part of the state’s ‘road back’ from coronavirus plan.
Mr Andrews said while the activities “so many Victorians have been missing” would be allowed, social distancing principles still applied.
NO REPRIEVE FOR CAFES, RESTAURANTS
Premier Dan Andrews said feedback from businesses was that allowing 10 patrons inside would not be viable. That’s the number allowed in cafes and restaurants interstate – Victoria will be restricted to takeaway only for at least the end of May.
“My thinking here is that if we wait these three weeks, when we move to open, go beyond just takeaway for cafes, we might not have to stick with the number of 10,” Mr Andrews said, adding a wider reopening was possible in June.
The move has disappointed some.
ON SCHOOLS:
Students have been given the green light to return to schools this term with an end to remote learning in sight.
Premier Daniel Andrews on Monday confirmed the government believed a “gradual, staged return to face-to-face learning is safe, cautious and appropriate”.
The Herald Sun understands further announcements are expected on Tuesday that students could be back by late May.
It’s expected early primary years students and senior high school pupils would return to classrooms in the first instance, with young kids pinpointed as most vulnerable to remote learning while VCE students faced their most important years of schooling.
ON THE AFL:
“We have agreed to a set of arrangements that will allow training … for professional sports to resume from midnight tomorrow night,” Mr Andrews said.
“Training resuming paves the way for footy to be back and I think we all want that.”
“These are small steps, significant steps though.”
“If you relax too many rules too quickly, we’ll find ourselves back here, or even worse, in a lockdown even harder.”
ON PROTECTING THOSE OVER 65:
Victoria’s Chief Medical Officer Brett Sutton says “cocooning” the highest risk Victorians isn’t a strategy that has worked overseas.
“We’ve always had the message that those who are at greater risk, over 65, with chronic illness, in particular, need to be precautionary about how they engage with others,” he said.
“Obviously, they shouldn’t have people who are unwell visiting them at home. They shouldn’t go out unnecessarily. The same advice for everyone. I would say the real protection of vulnerable individuals is doing the right thing across the board.
“The idea you can just cocoon the highest risk individuals and everyone gets on with normal life is not an approach that’s worked overseas.”
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