Victoria ditches more COVID-19 restrictions for entertainment sector

Image: Bastien Plu on Unsplash  

Victoria has relaxed its COVID-19 restrictions for the hospitality and entertainment sectors.

From 6pm tomorrow (Friday), more people will be allowed into entertainment venues and dancefloors will return.

The new measures will see the ‘one person per two square metre’ rule scrapped.

QR check-ins will no longer be required at schools, childcare centres, shops and many workplaces, but will remain at hospitality and entertainment venues, which have been dubbed part of the “vaccinated economy”.

The indoor mask rules will remain, however this rule could change on Friday next week for more workers in a bid to get more people back into offices.

The State Government has also reduced the quarantine period for unvaccinated international visitors and aircrew.

They will now be required to stay in hotel quarantine for just seven days, instead of the previous 14-day requirement.

Premier Dan Andrews noted hospital numbers were down, which allowed for the new flexibility.

“The trend is good. The trend is positive,” he said at a press conference this morning, but noted that despite the declines “you’d never describe it as easy”.

“This is exactly what we said we would do,” he added. “We would have rules on for not a moment longer than they were needed.”

When dancefloors were banned in Victoria on January 10, there were 818 people in the state in hospital with COVID-19, compared to 401 today.

78 of those currently in hospital with COVID-19 are in ICU and 16 are ventilated.

The state recorded 8,501 new cases today.

93% of the state’s population aged 12 and over have received two doses of the vaccine.

For those 18 and over, 53% have had a third vaccine dose.