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Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews (pictured) has clarified Melburnians will be allowed to work outside the metro area now that regional Victoria has entered the next stage of its path to COVID-19 recovery.
Workers will however need permits from their employers in regional Victoria, and the Premier emphasised the rule 'if you can work from home, you must' still applies.
"I can confirm that people can travel to regional Victoria for work more broadly and are not bound by the committed industries requirements in Melbourne," he said.
"When a person from metropolitan Melbourne is in regional Victoria, the metropolitan Melbourne restrictions apply to them.
"Even though they're not in in metropolitan Melbourne the rules follow them to their work in regional Victoria. For example they can't be going out to a restaurant for dinner."
He said the announcement mostly applies to Melburnians living close to the border with regional Victoria, although it won't be exclusive.
"This was not so much an issue while their place of work was not open, but now that it is open we think this is a reasonable balance," he said, noting that people still can't go to work even if they have the mildest of symptoms.
The clarification comes ahead of the second step to recovery slated for Melbourne this Sunday, including the establishment of social bubbles, the incorporation of more workplaces into the permitted industry list, and some new openings for education.
The trigger for this next step to go ahead is that Victoria stays within a band of 30-50 daily cases, and today the numbers are well below that at 15.
"This shows without any doubt that our strategies work when these numbers are coming down," Premier Andrews said.
"We are very pleased with these numbers and very grateful for all the hard work and sacrifice and the commitment that every single Victorian has shown.
"You can't achieve these outcomes, you can't get to that COVID-normal without an amazing effort by the vast majority of Victorians, and to each of them I say thank you."
Updated at 11:30am AEST on 23 September 2020.
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