Melbourne's Lockdown Restrictions Eased: Here's What You Can Do

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has provided a long-awaited update to Melbourne's coronavirus restrictions.

What is the 25km limit?

People in Melbourne will be allowed to leave their home for any reason. The four permitted reasons, which have been in place for months, are being scrapped.

"With zero [new] cases and so much testing over the weekend, not just in the north but across the whole state, we are able to say that now is the time to open up. Now is the time to congratulate every single Victorian for staying the course," Mr Andrews said.

However, for people in Melbourne the 25-kilometre travel limit will remain in place until 11:59pm on November 8.

The "ring of steel" between metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria will also remain until that date.

"From 11:59pm on Sunday November 8, I can confirm that the 25-kilometre travel limit will go and the metropolitan Melbourne-regional border will go as well," Mr Andrews said.

"The state will be one again."

Can I visit friends and family?

Visiting people at their homes will be allowed from Wednesday, but we'll have to wait until the Premier's next press conference to get some more detail on what limits will apply.

Mr Andrews said the Government needed another day to give Victorians "a clearer sense" of how home visits will work.

"We want to get this right," he said.

"We don't want to do a bubble because we think that can be a particularly confusing set of arrangements for families, but we haven't quite settled [on the rules for home visits] yet."

Mr Andrews said the rules would be as simple, inclusive and compassionate as possible, while acknowledging that "the most dangerous environment for the spread of this virus is in your home".

"When you have visitors you let your guard down and they go back to their house, they have visitors and all of a sudden we can have chains of transmission that spread silently and very very quickly," he said.

But to give you some idea of what you might be able to expect, in regional Victoria up to two people, plus their dependents such as children who cannot be left home alone, can visit another household.

It's unlikely the rules in Melbourne would go further than that, but there is a chance they could be more restrictive.

If you want to meet in public, outdoor gatherings will still be capped at 10 people but will no longer be limited to just two households.

"There can be more than two households but the group cannot exceed 10," Mr Andrews said.

"Infants under 12 months are not included in the calculation."

Retail Stores and Hospitality Businesses

• All retail stores will be allowed to reopen from Wednesday.
  
• Beauty, personal services and tattoo parlours can return as long as customers can wear a mask throughout the procedure.
  
• Hospitality businesses will be allowed to seat patrons, including inside.
• Restaurants, cafes, bars and pubs will be allowed to seat a maximum of 20 people indoors, provided there are no more than 10 people per space and no more than one person for every 4 square metres.
  
• Outdoors will be restricted to one person per 2 square metres, up to a maximum of 50 patrons.
  
• Groups will be capped at 10 people, seated 1.5 metres from other groups.

What about sports?

Weddings, funerals and religious gatherings

• Weddings will increase to a maximum of 10 people.
  
• Funerals will increase to a maximum of 20 mourners.
  
• Indoor religious gatherings will be capped at 10 people indoors, or 20 people outdoors, plus one faith leader.
  

Additional changes will be introduced on November 8

We've already mentioned some of the changes coming in on November 8, namely that the 25km travel limit for Melburnians will go and the regional-metropolitan border will come down.

But this date also brings the whole state into alignment under the same restrictions, meaning there are changes for Melbourne gyms, hospitality, faith gatherings, funerals and sport:

• Gyms and fitness studios can reopen for a maximum of 20 people, provided there are no more than 10 people per space and no more than one person per 8 square metres
• Hospitality venues can seat 40 people indoors and 70 people outdoors
• Religious gatherings can have 50 people outdoors, or 20 people indoors, plus one faith leader
• Non-contact junior sport can operate indoors
• Indoor pools can open for up to 20 swimmers at a time
• Funerals can have 20 mourners indoors or 50 mourners outdoors.

November 8 will also be the day Victorians get a sense of what the rest of November, and indeed Christmas, might look like with the Premier set to unveil an updated roadmap.

"We know that longer term roadmap is very important," Mr Andrews said.

"We have to be vigilant in the weeks and months to come. Until a vaccine comes, there is no normal, there is only COVID-19 normal.

"So we need to be proud today, we need to be optimistic, we need to be confident, but we also need to be COVID-safe, and I'm very confident that is exactly what Victorians will do."

Courtesy of ABC