Dominic Perrottet has announced a major overhaul to NSW’s Covid restrictions with masks to be scrapped from all indoor settings, except for public transport.
A suite of restrictions will be lifted this Friday including the recommendation to work from home and rules on density limits and QR check in codes.
The 2sqm density limit will no longer be enforced in hospitality venues with dancing and singing to return just in time for the weekend.
Meanwhile, from February 25, face masks to be scrapped in all indoor settings, apart from public transport and a few other exceptions including hospitals.
QR codes will only be required for nightclubs and music festivals.
The changes coincide with Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews’ axing of some of Australia’s most-hated Covid restrictions from Friday.
Mr Andrews did not announce a change in indoor mask rules, but said he hoped masks will not be necessary for the triple-vaccinated in offices from next week.
Dominic Perrottet (pictured) has announced a major overhaul to NSW’s Covid restrictions with masks to be scrapped from all indoor settings
In his announcement this afternoon, Mr Perrottet said masks will only be compulsory on public transport, planes and indoors in airports, hospitals, aged-care facilities, correctional facilities and music festivals with more than 1,000 people.
Festivals will no longer be capped at 20,000 attendees with singing and dancing permitted from February 25.
His announcements comes hours after Daniel Andrews declared almost all the rules introduced in December and January to combat the Omicron wave will be dumped from Friday.
However, masks in Melbourne will remain compulsory indoors for now but Health Minister Martin Foley said he was ‘confident’ about relaxing this in the coming days.
Hospitality indoor density limits capping patrons at one per two square metres will be scrapped and dance floors reopened.
Mr Andrews said the booster vaccine rate for over-15s was just 12.7 per cent when density rules were introduced on January 6, compared to 52.2 per cent today.
When the dance-floor closure was announced on January 10, 818 Victorians were in hospital with Covid-19, compared to 401 on Thursday.
The two Premiers have famously hit it off since Mr Perrottet ascended to the top job late last year and have been coordinating Covid rules.
‘This is exactly what we said we would do,’ the premier said. ‘We would have rules on for not a moment longer than they were needed.’
QR code check-ins, including vaccine requirements, will be abolished for shops, schools, and staff at ‘many workplaces’.
However, they will still be required at hospitality and entertainment venues despite contact tracing not being rigorously conducted.
Mr Andrews said the main reason QR codes would remain in those settings was to keep unvaccinated Victorians out.
Daniel Andrews (pictured) declared almost all the rules introduced in December and January to combat the Omicron wave will be dumped from Friday
The premier said that even though health officials weren’t tracking people’s movements at the moment, ‘that doesn’t mean we won’t contact trace in the future’.
‘But, utimately, it’s just the simplest and easiest thing to do to validate that you are vaccinated and that you are allowed to be at the pub or in the restaurant,’ he said.
‘If it’s a (vaccinated) economy setting (where you) have to be vaccinated, then you continue to check in.’
Key industries like meat processing and supply chains where staff were required to be regularly tested for Covid will no longer have to.
‘These mandates will be become recommended-only, reflecting declining community transmission,’ Mr Andrews said.
‘Requirements for hospital worker bubbles will also be removed, but health services may still implement them at their discretion.’
International travellers will no longer need an arrivals permit through Service Victoria and unvaccinated passengers only need to do seven days of hotel quarantine.
Mr Foley will also ‘consider’ removing the recommendation for Victorians to work from home, and allowing office workers to remove masks.
‘I am confident that you will see us here again next week, confirming the arrangements around masks,’ he said.
Mr Andrews said he hoped Victorians would be back in the office by next Friday, and all public service staff would be working at least three days a week.
‘We’re confident that we’ll be able to get to a situation next Friday where masks are off in the office and the advice changes… people will then be free and in fact we’ll be encouraging them to go back to the office,’ he told reporters.
More to come.
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