Melbourne will remain under stage four lockdown for at least two more weeks, while restrictions ease across the rest of Victoria, Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed.
The two more weeks of stage four lockdown will come into effect at 11.59pm on 13 September and will remain in place until 28 September. Regional Victoria is one step ahead moving into stage two by the end of next Sunday.
Starting next Sunday, however, there will be some minor restrictions easing such as extending the curfew start time to 9pm and increasing the limit on exercise from one hour to two.
There will also be a “singles bubble” exemption put into place, allowing people who live alone to nominate one person to visit that is not necessarily an intimate partner. The nominate person will be able to travel outside of the five-kilometre radius but will still be subject to the 9pm curfew.
Restrictions for Melbourne will move into stage three on 28 September if coronavirus do not exceed the 30 to 50 daily cases while the rest of Victoria will see even more bans lifted.
“They essentially moved to step two and then we will reassess based on total numbers over a 14-day period,” the Premier said.
“We think that regional Victoria will essentially be able to move to the third step quite soon. It will be, perhaps, a matter of weeks before regional Victoria can move to a very different range of settings compared to metropolitan Melbourne.
“That would mean more shops open, more people back at work, people still working from home in some instances, but relatively normal, certainly compared to the situation in metropolitan Melbourne will have to be in for a longer period of time.”
Stay tuned for a breakdown of the Covid Roadmap into ‘normalcy’ for metropolitan and regional Victoria.
Also read: My Life in Lockdown: Q&A with Dr Vicki Kotsirilos