Bar staff must be fully vaxxed to work but nurses and supermarket workers don’t

Melbourne’s lockdown restrictions are being eased on Friday but there are some confusing rules causing concern ahead of the reopening.

Victorians have finally been given a reprieve with a fast-tracked end to lockdown from Friday.

While the chance to visit family and have a beer at the pub is welcome, some of the new rules have left people scratching their heads.

Some things are allowed while other very similar activities are still off limits.

HERE ARE SOME OF THE OBVIOUS CONTRADICTIONS

• Hairdressers, waiters and bar staff will have to be fully vaccinated to go to work on Friday but people on the “authorised worker” list, which includes supermarket workers, taxi drivers and truck drivers, only need to have their first dose – and nurses don’t need their first dose until the end of next week

• Twenty people can eat and drink inside a pub – without masks – but one masked shopper can’t go into a retail store

• You’ll be able to go to the hairdresser or beauty salon but not shop in retail stores

• You can take off your mask while eating and drinking in a group at a restaurant – or visiting family and friends’ homes – but must wear it while walking alone outdoors

Hospitality can reopen from Friday with limits on capacity.

• Someone who lives in Sunbury will be able drive 151km to Portsea on the Mornington Peninsula or 142km to Reefton in the Yarra Valley but not to Gisborne – the neighbouring town 17km away – because it crosses the regional border

• Restaurants will be allowed up to 20 people indoors — who can remove their masks to eat and drink — but food courts remain takeaway only and masks can’t be removed indoors

• A Sydneysider can travel from NSW to Victoria, including the regions, but Melburnians can’t leave the metropolitan area

• Groups of 15 people, including kids, could gather outdoors every single day but some Melbourne kids can only go to school two or three days a week

Retailers such as Chris Lutz have been told to trade outside or stay closed. Picture: Josie Hayden

Opposition spokesman for Covid-19 recovery co-ordination Tim Smith described the contradictions as “nonsensical” and said rules that allowed people in pubs but not shops were “essentially discriminatory”.

“They’re saying you’ve got to draw things out and it’s only a week, but what if you haven’t had an income for months,” Mr Smith said.

“This is what happened when you have bureaucrats and government ministers who have zero understanding of the sort of pressures that small business owners and their staff have had to endure for two years.”

He also called out mask rules.

“Whether you’re bushwalking in central Victoria or you are walking around Balwyn, you’re in a mask,” he said.

“Show me the evidence of outdoor transmission where social distancing is maintained.”