Residents in the Victorian-NSW border bubble will only be able to enter Victoria without a permit for six essential reasons from 11:59pm Tuesday, in an effort to prevent the NSW outbreak from spreading.
Key points:
- Health Minister Martin Foley said people entering Victoria for essential reasons should limit their travel south as much as possible
- The permitted reasons also apply to Victorian border bubble residents who plan to enter New South Wales
- The changes take effect from 11:59pm Tuesday, with fines of up to $5,452 for breaches
The reasons are:
- Necessary goods and services including medical care and COVID tests
- Care and compassion reasons
- Paid or voluntary work
- Education including childcare
- COVID-19 vaccination
- Sport and exercise
Health Minister Martin Foley said the government was trying to strike a reasonable balance while limiting potential transmission.
Mr Foley said the rules would also apply to Victorian residents travelling into New South Wales, meaning their travel into NSW must be essential if they wish to re-enter Victoria without a permit.
The restrictions do not apply in emergencies or if someone is escaping family violence.
ABC Mildura-Swan Hill: Jennifer Douglas
)Mr Foley acknowledged the tightened restrictions would cause stress and difficulty for border communities, but said previous protocols were not drawn up with the Delta variant in mind.
“We know that will have an impact on many border residents but we also know that an outbreak of the Delta variant on our doorstep will have an even more negative impact on our border communities," he said.
Mr Foley said the decision was made based on advice from the Chief Health Officer "given the deteriorating situation in New South Wales".
"Things in NSW are expected to get worse before they get better, and we want to make sure that our border-bubble arrangements are based on that risk assessment," he said.
ABC News: Scott Jewell
)In a slight easing of restrictions from 11:59pm Tuesday, there will no longer be limits to group bookings at hospitality venues, tours and gyms.
Mr Foley said the broader density limit of one person per 4 square metres would continue to apply.
Three COVID-19 cases are in intensive care
Victoria recorded two new locally acquired COVID-19 cases on Sunday, both of which were linked to the current outbreak and were quarantined while infectious.
Department of Health official Kate Matson said one of the new cases was a household contact of a case from the AAMI Park cluster and the other was a household contact of the testing site worker who tested positive last week.
She said there were eight cases in hospital, including three in intensive care.
The cases were detected from among 21,417 test results.
There were more than 15,000 vaccine doses administered at state-run vaccination hubs on Sunday.
ABC News: Daniel Fermer
)On Sunday, Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the state was "tracking really well" for the anticipated easing of restrictions next Wednesday.
Professor Sutton also highlighted that recent cases who were fully vaccinated experienced mild symptoms at worst, underscoring the protection offered by both AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines.
Mr Foley said most people who had returned from south-east Queensland as orange zone travellers over the weekend had tested negative so far.
South-east Queensland became a red zone under Victoria's traffic light system on Saturday night, as that region entered a lockdown in a bid to curb a growing Delta variant outbreak.
There have been no new COVID-19 exposure sites added in Victoria since Saturday, when authorities listed a gym in Altona North as they traced the movements of a testing site worker who tested positive last week.
Melbourne International Film Festival runs hybrid model
The Melbourne International Film Festival will open up to online audiences across Australia this year, as it again grapples with density limits in cinemas.
The festival's artistic director Al Cossar said in a statement the festival was using the Coburg Drive-In cinema to try to boost the number of people able to view the selection of films at a venue.
The festival's online streaming service will also be available from Friday to anyone across Australia, with about 90 films available over the course of the event.
"In the midst of COVID-era calamity, constraint and complication, MIFF keeps moving forward to meet audiences where they are, including those in lockdown currently," Mr Cossar said.
"Our whole festival team is working extremely hard to ensure that we can create and sustain as many opportunities for audiences to be a part of the festival this year as possible."
Meanwhile, Victoria's peak tourism body has estimated it will take between three and five years for Melbourne tourism operators to recover from the pandemic.
The Victorian Tourism Industry Council's Felicia Mariani said regional areas had enjoyed a rush of city residents holidaying in the country after each lockdown, but operators in the city were struggling.
"The defining moment in all of this has been the plight of our capital cities, Melbourne and Sydney in particular because of the reliance on international visitors, on major events, business travel," she said.
"All of those elements have been shut off at the moment."
She estimated visitor spending across Victoria had fallen by $22 billion in the 12-month period to March due to international and interstate border closures.
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Victoria records two new local cases as NSW border bubble tightens - ABC News
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