By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Victorians can legally resume hosting up to five visitors at their homes as part of a “small, cautious first step” to easing social restrictions.
Premier Daniel Andrews announced that the State of Emergency will extend to 31 May, warning people to “jealously guard” their “progress” in curtailing the spread of Covid-19.
“You only have one chance to do this right.”
Some of the social distancing rules will ease from 11.59pm on Tuesday 12 May.
Outdoor recreational activities such as walking groups, fishing, hiking and golf are now allowed for groups of up to 10 and with 1.5 metres distancing. National parks will re-open under those rules.
There will be now up to 10 guests at weddings. For funerals, up to 20 mourners can attend indoor services and up to 30 for outdoors.
The edicts to work and study from home still apply. However Mr Andrews foreshadowed a staggered re-opening of schools before the end of Term 2.
Restaurants and cafes remain closed but for take-aways. Mr Andrews said opening the venues for only up to 10 patrons was not viable for businesses.
He hoped that eat-in venues – including the restaurant sections of pubs – could re-open with larger gatherings in June.
On home gatherings, Mr Andrews urged people to limit visitors to “just family and friends”.
“That means that when we do have outbreaks and positive cases – and we will – we can test and trace and effectively contain the spread.
“Although these are our first steps back towards normalcy – they are not an invitation to host a dinner party every night of the week.”
Mr Andrews said there was a danger of a “worse lockdown” if too many social restrictions were relaxed too quickly.
During a recent testing blitz of 161,000 people, 30 cases were discovered that were neither overseas travellers nor linked to an outbreak. Some were without symptoms.
The testing regime will remain at least until the end of 2020, Mr Andrews said. “Normality” won’t resume until a coronavirus vaccine is created.
“It tells us the virus is still out there in the community. Whilst the numbers are stable, there’s a real need to be cautious.”
Mr Andrews said there would be “further outbreaks” as part of easing social restrictions. The key was to shutdown the outbreaks with testing, tracking and tracing of contacts.
“We’re not going to shut down the whole economy or go back to where we were because of one outbreak.”
Victoria’s Chief Health Officer, Brett Sutton, said that efforts to “cocoon” vulnerable people and otherwise “get on with life” hadn’t worked in Europe.
The “real way” to protect high-risk people was “low transmission across the board”, Professor Sutton said.
On 10 May, Victoria’s reported coronavirus cases rose by seven – a total of 1494.
One of the cases were connected to Cedar Meats, four were returned overseas travellers and the other two sources are under investigation.
On the same day, Victoria Police issued 44 fines for breaching social distancing and self-isolation rules.
They included a man who’d already been fined twice for loitering in public places in Frankston, and six people viewing the Twelve Apostles in a closed area.
