NSW has ditched the face mask mandate in most settings while Victoria will follow suit scrapping the unpopular rule at midnight.
Masks are no longer required in NSW shops, but will remain compulsory in key areas including public transport and hospitals, in a move welcomed by those fighting to revive the state’s city centres.
‘From Friday masks are off,’ NSW premier Dominic Perrottet announced on Thursday. ‘We will see a significant return back to the CBD and that will be positive.’
The protective face covering will also be scrapped in Victoria from 11.59pm on Friday.
Mr Perrottet said the government was working on a plan to encourage workers back into offices, and with the City of Sydney on initiatives to ‘breathe life back into the city’.
Masks are no longer required in NSW shops, but will remain compulsory in key areas including public transport and hospitals, in a move welcomed by those fighting to revive the state’s city centres
Mr Perrottet said the government was working on a plan to encourage workers back into offices, and with the City of Sydney on initiatives to ‘breathe life back into the city’
Ehssan Veiszadeh, Deputy CEO of the Committee for Sydney, said ‘we think the easing of mask mandates will be a gamechanger for the CBD’.
‘With Friday’s easing of the mask mandate, we think people will start to increase their days in the office,’ he said.
‘That’s what our CBDs desperately need and we strongly welcome it.’
Mr Perrottet encouraged public servants to return to the office after meeting with department heads on Monday.
The highly anticipated easing of restrictions will be followed up next week with high school students and staff no longer required to wear masks from Monday.
Parents will be allowed back on school campuses, year groups will be able to mix freely and assemblies and school camps return.
Staff and students will no longer be required to undertake twice-weekly rapid antigen tests, unless they have symptoms.
Masks will still be required to visit prisons, at indoor music festivals with more than 1,000 people, at airports and on planes, as well as at aged and disability care facilities.
The lifting of the mask mandate that has marked life during the pandemic comes as a National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance study published on Thursday recommended ‘the need for the public health measures, including wearing masks indoors’.
NSW on Thursday recorded 8271 new COVID-19 cases and 12 deaths. More than 52 per cent of the state’s residents aged 16 and older have received a booster shot of a COVID-19 vaccine.
When masks are no longer required in most places in Victoria from 11.59pm Friday, it’s likely most people will breathe easier.
The mask mandate has been in place in some form since July 2020, but will soon only be required in limited situations, such as on public transport, taxis, and in airports and hospitals.
When masks are no longer required in most places in Victoria from 11.59pm Friday, it’s likely most people will breathe easier
Some groups of workers will also have to keep wearing masks, including hospitality and retail workers, people who work in primary schools and early childhood centres, and justice and correctional facility staff.
High school students will also be allowed to ditch their masks, but primary school students in grades three to six will still have to wear them for now.
That’s due in part to the lower vaccination rate in children aged five to 11 which stands at 54.5 per cent having had at least one dose.
That’s compared to a double-jab rate of 93.9 per cent for Victorians aged 12 and above.
People who have contracted Covid-19 and their close contacts will also have to wear masks outside their homes.
Also from midnight Friday, people are no longer being told to work from home.
The state’s remaining restrictions on elective surgery will soon lift on Monday, with both public and private hospitals able to resume all surgery.
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