Today, Victorian health officials announced that Covid-19 restrictions will be easing this Friday, 25th June as case numbers surrounding the current Melbourne outbreak continue to decrease.
Earlier today, acting premier James Merlino announced the news via a press conference. As reported by the ABC, these new settings will be in place for two weeks, allowing school holiday-ers some leeway in planning their time off. The following changes apply to both metropolitan and regional Victoria:
- Public gatherings of up to 50 people
- Up to 15 people in homes per day
- Work from home recommendations removed, caps raised
- Wedding and funeral caps raised to 300 — subject to venue density limits
- Recreational sport – 300 people indoors, 1000 outdoors
- Seated venues – 300 indoors, 1000 outdoors
- No changes to mask rules
And some kind of good news for hospitality venues:
- Restaurants and cafes can now open with max 300 patrons per venue for seated service, subject to density quotient of one person per 4 square metres.
- Venues smaller than 600 square metres can have one person per 2 square metres, up to 150 patrons, provided that the venue has a COVID check-in marshal present at all times.
- Smaller venues will still be able to host up to 25 people before the density limit.
In terms of sport, from 11:59pm this Thursday:
- Outdoor stadiums will can operate at 50% capacity with max 25 000 people.
- Indoor stadiums can operate at 50% capacity, max 5000 people.
- Theatres can operate at 50% of venue capacity, max 1000 people.
And from the following week, 11:59pm Thursday July 1 (subject to public health advice):
- Indoor and outdoor stadiums will be able to increase to 85% capacity. This includes the MCG, Marvel Stadium and AAMI Park.
- Theatres will be able to return to 100% capacity.
However, whilst there can be 15 000 people at the A-League grand final, and 25 000 at the MCG, the minute changes to hospitality restrictions mean that not much will be changing in favour of live music just yet.
