Andrews winds back mask rules, ramps up back-to-office plans despite new Holiday Inn cases

Victorians can take off their masks in all but high-risk settings, welcome more visitors to their homes and more workers can head back to the office after the state recorded two new COVID-19 cases on Friday, both linked to the Holiday Inn cluster.

The new cases broke Victoria’s six-day run of no local infections but Premier Daniel Andrews said the state was still able to return to “COVID-safe summer” restrictions that were in place before the Black Rock Thai restaurant outbreak in late December.

Victoria’s new rules

From 11.59pm on Friday, masks will only be required on public transport, in ride-share vehicles and taxis, sensitive settings such as aged care facilities and shopping centres, supermarkets, department stores and indoor markets.

Victorians will be able to welcome up to 30 people in their homes per day. Outdoor gatherings in public places can increase to 100 people.

And up to 75 per cent of workers can return to offices in both the public and private sectors – an increase from 50 per cent.

“I want to thank every Victorian for making today’s announcement possible – and I want to thank every Victorian for their patience. It’s been a hard slog, but Victorians are doing what they do best as we work to beat this virus: staying the course and looking out for each other,” Mr Andrews said.

Density limits in pubs, restaurants and cafes will remain at one person per two square metres for both indoors and outdoors, with no other cap so long as patrons use QR codes.

Making comparisons between the number of visitors allowed to homes and other settings, such as restaurants and other “regulated environments” were not necessarily helpful, Mr Andrews said.

“Why can the restaurant be open but I can’t have a big barbecue at home? Well, we know that every home is a much higher risk environment,” he said.

“I know that’s a bit counterintuitive because you’re with people you know ... but that’s exactly the issue, you don’t keep the 1½-metre distance, you don’t necessarily have all the formality that comes in a restaurant or a bar or a cafe.”

In gyms, the density limit remains at one person per four square metres with classes limited to 50 people indoors and 100 outdoors.

Victoria’s State of Emergency will be extended until 11.59pm on March 15.

The Premier said the concept of “a new normal” was very real as more workers would return to office buildings from Monday.

“That is very important in terms of retail trade, hospitality, food and beverage – that whole part of the economy, and not just for the CBD (as important as that is) but in lots of different suburban locations, as well as regional centres,” he said.

“We were on the cusp of moving to that [75 per cent] setting when we had our most recent challenges, so I’m very pleased, based on public health advice from the Chief Health Officer, we’re able to make those adjustments.”

When the COVID-safe summer rules were announced in early December, Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the rules represented the closest return to normal that could be done safely in the absence of widespread vaccine takeup.

No international flights, but hopes for a ‘closer to normal’ Anzac Day

However, Victoria will not welcome international flights until new systems are in place to prevent another Holiday Inn-style outbreak of the highly contagious UK variant of the virus and other new strains.

“We’ve got our doctors looking at this very closely – what can we do differently in the context of these new strains to minimise the chances of this getting out,” Mr Andrews said.

“I’m just not having flights land until I’ve had that work done ... by experts in their field.”

Yet the Premier hopes an Anzac Day parade will go ahead this year.

RSL Victoria earlier this month said the traditional Anzac Day march would be cancelled for the second year running because COVID-19 restrictions and safety concerns for elderly veterans made it unmanageable.

“I want an Anzac Day parade,” Mr Andrews said on Friday. “One of the great honours and privileges of this job ... to lead that march, is an amazing privilege, an amazing privilege, one that I cherish every year.

“To be at the dawn service and be in the official party at the dawn service is a deeply emotional and profound thing. I want an Anzac Day service that is as close to normal as possible, that’s why we’re continuing to work with Anzac House and with other groups ... to try and get that.”

New Holiday Inn cases

Friday marks the end of the 14-day incubation period for many close contacts of COVID-positive people infected during the Holiday Inn outbreak, which now stands at 24 cases.

Under the government’s current approach, secondary contacts – or contacts of contacts – are put into 14-day isolation once identified. Consequently, the close contacts of Friday’s two cases have already been in isolation for 14 days, all but negating the threat to the wider community.

Mr Andrews said Friday’s new cases were linked to a private function in Coburg, in Melbourne’s north, that was attended by an infected Holiday Inn worker. Both people have been isolating in hotel quarantine, away from their families.

“They pose no risk to public health more broadly ... It was obviously late in their 14-day period they have tested positive,” Mr Andrews said.

“I will take this opportunity to thank the many thousands of people who over these last few weeks have been at home, isolating away from other members of the community. We thank them and absolutely acknowledge the sacrifice and the important contribution they have made to protect public health.

“It does speak to the fact [that with] this UK strain you can very late in that 14-day period become positive. It also speaks to why it’s so important to have that full 14-day [isolation] period, even in the last few days.”

Victoria to pay NSW $34 million in quarantine costs

Meanwhile, the Andrews government has confirmed it will pay $34.3 million to NSW to cover the cost of accommodating Victorians in hotel quarantine.

“We intend to reimburse NSW for the cost of providing quarantine for Victorian returned travellers,” a government spokeswoman said.

NSW has been hosting about 3000 returning Australians a week since last year, including when Victoria’s quarantine system was shut down from June until December.

The Queensland government is so far refusing to pay, insisting it will only transfer the $30 million it owes to NSW once the federal government approves its proposed pop-up quarantine hub near Toowoomba.

Premier Daniel Andrews with (L-R) COVID-19 commander Jeroen Weimar, Health Minister Martin Foley and Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton.Credit: Chris Hopkins

A total of 808 vaccine doses were administered in Victoria on Wednesday, up from 675 on Tuesday and 580 on Monday.

South Australia has reopened its border to Melburnians, and Queensland will lift its travel restrictions on the city from 1am on Saturday.

Professor Sutton indicated after the five-day lockdown that health officials realised its tracing and isolation model was sufficient to deal with outbreaks involving more infectious strains of the virus – indicating that if it was presented with a similar set of circumstances the government might not mandate another lockdown.

Paul Guerra, chief executive of the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said relaxing indoor mask rules meant more workers would feel comfortable returning to offices and the city’s economy would regenerate.

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