For many Victorians, watching Premier Daniel Andrews's coronavirus press conferences has become a gloomy part of the daily routine under lockdown.
Key points:
- Melburnians will be able to visit one another at their homes from 11:59pm tonight, but the final details are yet to be announced
- Hospitality, retail and beauty business owners are "ecstatic" to reopen again from Wednesday
- Other residents say they're looking forward to seeing friends and visiting family in regional Victoria
But Monday's update, in which he announced many of Melbourne's restrictions would be lifted after months of lockdown, generated sighs of relief across the city.
Richmond residents Jason Samuel and Victoria Sparks said hearing the news was "quite emotional".
"I came downstairs and she [Ms Sparks] was shedding a tear," Mr Samuel said.
"Our parents live in Gippsland so we're looking forward to getting down to Cape Paterson and spending some time down there too," Ms Sparks said.
Victoria recorded its first day of zero cases in more than four months on Monday, prompting Mr Andrews to announce a widespread lifting of Melbourne's restrictions.
Among the changes taking place from 11:59pm tonight, hospitality, retail and beauty services are being permitted to reopen, and the four reasons to leave home are being scrapped.
And from 11:59pm on November 8, the 25km-radius travel limit will be axed and travel between Melbourne and regional Victoria will be permitted.
An announcement finalising the rules surrounding home visits is expected to be made today. Currently only intimate partners and people in single social bubbles can visit other people at their homes.
Loading...
Beauty and hospitality businesses 'ecstatic' to reopen
Many business owners have been critical of the Government's pace of reopening. But Andy Mullins, the owner of St Kilda's iconic Espy Hotel, said now was a time for gratitude.
"We've taken a pretty philosophical view," he told ABC Radio Melbourne.
"I look at what people have worked so, so hard to get us to, this state of being, which is not where other countries are.
"And that's the reason why in a couple of weeks' time there will be … people having beers out the front, and that's why every other cafe and bar is going to be firing.
Beauty therapist Leanne Jones said she was "ecstatic" about reopening, even with short notice.
"We've had seven months to prepare for this, we've got our COVID plans ready," she said.
Ms Jones said during Mr Andrews's announcement her phone was "lighting up like a Christmas tree" with people wanting to book in for treatments.
"Everybody wants to get their waxing done, everybody wants to get their grooming done, and they just want to be out and about and they want some normality to their lives," she said.
Bakery worker Simona said she was looking forward to going out for pizza and having customers back in person.
"During the day, all day by myself without customers, it's completely different. It's a different style of work and I don't like it," she said.
"With customers inside, the time goes so much faster — you don't realise and the day is over so much faster."
Nancy Baxter, an epidemiologist at the University of Melbourne, said the fact Victoria still had some restrictions in place when its second wave began might have helped prevent the state's positive daily case numbers from spiralling into the thousands.
Some European countries, including Spain, France, the UK and Italy, have seen rapid spikes during October.
"It just came back and came back roaring, and now they have peak numbers that are far higher than their initial wave," she told ABC Radio Melbourne.
"This is what can happen if we open up too quickly."
A bookshop worker said Melbourne's lockdown had been "really hard" but seeing the case number drop to zero made it "feel like it was worthwhile".
"It's good we've waited until this time," she said.
"Having a zero day today means I feel a lot more positive about it and am really excited to have people back in [the bookshop] and have it opening up."
She said she was looking forward to going out for drinks and coffees again, but was eager to have friends over too.
"One of the biggest things has been not being able to have people in the house — just having one friend around for dinner, sitting with someone in your house, just being able to spend time with a friend," she said.
"Being outside's been really nice, but particularly with the weather it's not always ideal."
Details on restrictions for home visits yet to come
Melburnians will be able to visit one another at their homes from 11:59pm tonight, but the fine print is yet to be announced.
As he announced the reopening of hospitality, retail and beauty businesses to customers from Wednesday, Mr Andrews said home visits would also be allowed, but the rules weren't settled yet.
He did say the idea of a "bubble" was unlikely to be adopted because authorities felt it could be too confusing.
But he said public health teams needed more time to think about the rules around this particular eased restriction, due to the extremely high risk home visits have posed throughout the pandemic.
"Not exclusively, not every single case is attributable to this, but many cases in any chain of transmission that we've had to deal with over the whole year, you can almost always trace them back to someone visiting someone who shouldn't have done that," he said.
Mr Andrews said he wasn't seeking to blame anyone, but it was important to understand that people making home visits against the rules had played a role in the spread of the northern suburbs outbreak, which for a time threatened to derail Melbourne's reopening.
"You might think, 'oh look I feel ok, everything's fine, I'll just sneak over here, I'll just do this, do that, it won't be a big problem, I've followed the rules all year, I'll just go and do that'," he said.
The Premier hinted that the rules in regional Victoria, which can allow for adults from three different households and their dependents to come together, might be too relaxed for Melbourne right now.
"That can be a much bigger group than we perhaps might like in Melbourne, noting that there is a difference in terms of the virus levels in regional Victoria versus metropolitan Melbourne," he said.
Outdoor gatherings remain capped at 10 people, but will no longer be limited to just two households.
The Victorian Opposition has pressed for the state to immediately move to the restrictions currently in place in New South Wales, arguing the state has a similar caseload and contact tracing capacity.
In NSW, up to 20 people can visit another household at any one time, including adults and children and excluding members of the household being visited.
There is no daily limit on visitors, provided they do not exceed 20 at any given time, but the NSW Chief Health Officer recommends no more than 10 visitors at a time.
If more than 20 visitors attend, every person will be held individually responsible for breaching public health orders.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMibmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTEwLTI3L3ZpY3RvcmlhLWNvcm9uYXZpcnVzLXJlc3RyaWN0aW9ucy1lYXNlLWJyaW5ncy1qb3ktdG8tbWVsYm91cm5lLzEyODE1MzMw0gEnaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAuYWJjLm5ldC5hdS9hcnRpY2xlLzEyODE1MzMw?oc=5
2020-10-26 19:13:00Z
52781140527575
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Victoria coronavirus restrictions: Melbourne residents 'ecstatic' about new freedoms as home visit details to come - ABC News"
Post a Comment