Victorian restrictions to ease from Thursday night after three new cases recorded

Melbourne’s 25-kilometre travel limit will be removed and Melburnians will be able to visit regional Victoria from 11.59pm on Thursday, the state government has announced.

Melburnians will be allowed to have two visitors, plus dependants, per day in their homes and regional Victorians will be allowed five, plus dependants.

Acting Premier James Merlino also said that gatherings of up to 20 people will be allowed outside in Melbourne when restrictions ease from Thursday night.

Gyms and indoor entertainment venues can reopen.

The changes come after Victoria reported three new local cases of coronavirus and three more in hotel quarantine.

Wednesday’s official figures include two other local cases that were reported on Tuesday afternoon, bringing the official total for the 24-hour period to five local cases.

The three new cases are linked to known outbreaks, the Health Department said.

Health authorities are working with staff at a private hospital after a nurse tested positive to COVID-19 overnight.

COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar said those who worked with the nurse had all had their first vaccination.

“We are concerned about this case and an incident response team is working on it. The circumstances, we understand, is that she worked two shifts in June.

“She may have been infectious for the second shift.”

Up to 7000 local AFL fans will be allowed to attend the Geelong v Western Bulldogs match in Geelong on Friday night.

“I know that football is something on a lot of people’s minds,” Mr Merlino said.

“While we can’t have the crowds back in Melbourne just yet, we will be able to get some people along to the game in Geelong on Friday.

A pop-up COVID testing site in front of a locked down apartment block in Southbank where coronavirus cases have been detected.Credit: Joe Armao

“We will work with the AFL and clubs to allow a crowd of up to 7000 people from the regions – Colac Otway, City of Greater Geelong, Queenscliff and the Surf Coast – to attend at Kardinia Park, provided they are members of the two clubs playing, so we can keep a tight record of who attends.”

The South Melbourne Market had to close for cleaning after being identified as a tier-2 exposure site after a case visited on Saturday, June 12, between 11.30am and 1.30pm.

A coffee shop at the market and the male toilets at South Melbourne Central were added as tier-1 exposure sites by health authorities on Tuesday night.

Anyone who attended Padre Coffee at South Melbourne Market on Saturday, June 12, between 11.30am and 12.30pm and anyone who used the male toilets on level two of South Melbourne Central on June 12 between 1.45pm and 2.15pm need to quarantine for 14 days.

South Melbourne Market executive director Danielle Bleazby urged patrons to return when it reopens on Friday.

“We’ll be reopening on Friday, which is their next market day anyway,” Ms Bleazby told ABC 774 Melbourne on Wednesday.

“We’re doing a full clean as we speak, and we’ll be ready to go from Friday onwards.

“We’d love support, so please come and get behind our traders, and really support them or get out on Friday and through the weekend so they can get them back on track again.”

Sakura Kaiten Sushi II on Lonsdale Street in Melbourne was also added to the tier-1 list for anyone who visited the site on Sunday, June 13, between 12.30pm and 1.50pm.

A number of sites in South Melbourne and Port Melbourne were also added as tier-2 sites, meaning anyone who visited those locations on the stated times needs to have a COVID-19 test and isolate until they receive a negative result. Bunnings in Port Melbourne is among those.

Other tier-2 locations are Woolworths South Melbourne Central on June 12, Mister Margherita on June 11, and Fruits on Coventry at South Melbourne Market on June 12 from 12.20pm to 12.50pm.

Mr Merlino said he hoped to further ease restrictions around the state next week as long as cases remained low.

“These settings will be in place for seven days, and the public health team will review this data and options on a daily basis,” Mr Merlino said.

“That is subject to case numbers, exposure sites, and always on the advice of public health.

“I expect we will be back here in one week to make further announcements about easing of restrictions.”

Some testing sites were experiencing high demand on Wednesday morning, after a few days of lower testing numbers.

St Vincent’s Hospital, The Alfred hospital and testing sites on Montague Street in South Melbourne and Aughtie Walk in Albert Park reached capacity on Wednesday morning and temporarily redirected people seeking a test to other sites.

Wait times at other venues were also longer than has been the case lately, with a three-hour wait at the Bourke Street site, two hours at Sandringham Hospital, and 90-minute waits at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, IPC Health in Deer Park, Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital and the Moonee Valley Racecourse.

Mr Merlino urged people to continue to get tested. “It’s no exaggeration to say the single most important thing every single Victorian can do is to get tested as soon as they have even the mildest of symptoms,” he said.

“As we head deeper into winter – this becomes more important than ever. We can’t assume that a scratchy throat is the sign of a winter cold. Find out for sure – get tested.”

Hundreds of people line up in their cars for a COVID-19 test in South Melbourne on Wednesday.Credit: Paul Jeffers

COVID-19 tests needed for Melburnians planning snow trip from Friday

Melburnians were also told they will be permitted to travel to the state’s alpine ski resorts when restrictions ease on Thursday night, but they will be required to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test result in the 72 hours before departing the city in order to be allowed entry.

The Victorian government seriously considered continuing the ban on Melburnians travelling to the snow given the coronavirus risk, but following lengthy deliberations settled on a compromise to lift the restriction on the condition people undertook a test.

During Wednesday’s press conference, Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the risk of spread in alpine snow regions were serious, and described it as a high-risk environment.

“A single infectious case on a mountain would be a potential super-spreader event,” he said.

“It is essentially how it spread across Europe in March last year. It has been demonstrated in resorts like Aspen and other West Coast Canadian towns.”

Border rules

Professor Sutton said there were no travel restrictions on Victorians as far as he was concerned, and it would be up to the restrictions in place in other states as to whether or not Victorian travellers are welcome.

“So just follow the rules of those jurisdictions. If there’re no constraints, you’re obviously allowed to go to all of those jurisdictions, but you need to look at what their rules are for people coming from the whole of Victoria, or indeed some of them just have metro Melbourne as a hotspot, effectively,” he said.

For those heading to NSW, testing and isolating applies if you have been at exposure sites, but otherwise an entry declaration form will get you across the border. The latest information is on the NSW government website.

If your school holiday plans included the sun and surf of Queensland, things may be a bit trickier. According to the Queensland government website the Greater Melbourne area was declared a hotspot on June 11, but regional Victorians who haven’t visited Melbourne can apply for a border pass.

South Australia announced this week that regional Victorians would be welcomed, as long as they isolated and tested on arrival and followed certain restrictions. People from Melbourne can’t go unless they have an exemption.

The Northern Territory and Western Australia have been known for their strict entry requirements and our best advice is to check their government websites before leaving Victoria. Beware that one of the latest updates for WA allowed entry, but only with 14 days of isolation and testing.

And Tasmania distinguishes between Melbourne and regional Victoria, with isolation required for the former and a travel declaration needed for the latter.

The easing of restrictions came as a man from Sydney’s east became NSW’s first local COVID-19 case in 40 days on Wednesday.

The man, who is in his 60s, works as a driver in a role which includes transporting international air crew. Health authorities said he had not recently been overseas.

With Kate Rose, David Estcourt and Sumeyya Ilanbey

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