Health Minister Martin Foley made an announcement earlier today in response to rising case numbers.

In accordance to the new measures in place in New South Wales, more restrictions will be imposed tomorrow.

Dancing will not be permitted anymore at venues across Victoria from midnight Wednesday. Dancing will only be permitted at weddings, however, guests are encouraged to move outdoors.

At this stage there are no further restrictions changing the nature of service at hospitality venues; people can be seated or standing.

“We continue to strongly recommend that if you can work from home that you should work from home,” Mr Foley said.

“We strongly recommend that if you can study from home and you’re required to study at the moment, then you should study from home.”

Meanwhile, limits on visitors in aged care and hospital settings will be set to help curb the spike of Omicron cases. Residents will be allowed up to five visitors a day, as long as their guests return a negative rapid antigen test result before they come in. But given the short supply of RATs, acting Chief Health Officer Professor Ben Cowie said visitors would be limited to two people per day for an aged care resident if they cannot get tested. Visitors should also be fully vaccinated otherwise rapid tests and medical grade masks will be mandatory.

In addition to that, the vaccine mandate has also extended to the health and aged care sectors who must have a third dose by 12 February.

In terms of concerns regarding the reopening of schools, Mr Foley said that “the Commonwealth this week is commencing the discussions to try to get a consistent approach to those issues and Victoria will be a part of those discussions. We know that kids have done it really hard over the last two years.”

Lastly, following several discussions between members of the government and experts it was decided that essential workers including supermarket staff, those employed in abattoirs, food and beverage processing, freight, transport, logistics workers and food warehousing would be exempt from close contact isolation rules if all other avenues were exhausted.