Victoria to ease density limits for SME venues

Victoria's live music venues, restaurants, bars and nightclubs will be able to welcome more patrons from 28 May as the one person per two square metres rule is lifted for small-to-medium sized venues across the state.

Provided people continue to check in at locations through the Service Victoria app with COVID marshals in place to ensure the rules are followed, these venues will be able to have up to 200 people per space without any density limit.

The app and electronic record keeping will be mandatory for all venues and businesses from the same date, with the relaxation applying for spaces that are 400 square metres or smaller. Density limits will remain for anything larger.

Density quotients will also be removed for outdoor non-seated venues such as recreation facilities, community sport, pools, tourism services and non-seated outdoor entertainment such as zoos.

While many Victorians are doing the right thing, public health officials remain concerned about low rates of check-ins. All Victorians are encouraged to download the Service Victoria app to make checking in as fast and easy as possible.

A recent survey showed only 41 per cent of visitors to hospitality venues checked in every time, while 24 per cent of sites visited by Authorised Officers between 30 April and 2 May were warned or received notices due to lack of compliance with electronic record keeping.

The Victorian Government will communicate with third party providers who engaged with the Visitation API process and ensuring continued strong management of any check-in data held during a three-week transition and implementation period.

"This change means checking in will be quick and easy and ensure the data is high-quality and easily available to our contract tracers, should any venue be listed as an exposure site," says the state's Minister for Health Martin Foley.

"This is great news for many live music venues, restaurants and nightclubs who can open the doors to up to 200 people per space - but getting every Victorian to check in using the QR code service is the goal."

Meanwhile, in NSW contact tracers continue to scramble to find the mystery link behind two community transmission cases that have emerged in Sydney, but at least in the 24 hours to 8pm last night there were no new locally acquired cases.

Indian repatriation flights announced 

Following a backlash against its harsh measures threatening imprisonment for Australian citizens who return from India during the travel suspension with the South Asian country, the Federal Government has today announced repatriation flights will resume on May 15.

These flights from India will take returning Australians to the Northern Territory, where they will be placed in quarantine at the Centre for National Resilience at Howard Springs.

The National Security Committee of Cabinet was advised yesterday that the pause was working and that this would allow the repatriation flights to resume after May 15.

The temporary ban will remain in place until that time, as intended.

The number of COVID-19 positive cases in the Howard Springs has fallen to 21, from more than 50 cases a week ago, and positive cases associated with previous facilitated flights from India are on track to reach zero by 14 May.

Repatriation flights into the Howard Springs will resume on May 15 with one flight per 7-9 days, with an estimated 1,000 Australians returning by the end of June. Vulnerable Australians will be prioritised on these flights.

An initial repatriation flight to Darwin will leave India on May 15. Two further repatriation flights to the Northern Territory from India will be scheduled during May.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the flight pause has given the quarantine system space to operate safely and to protect Australians from the COVID-19 pandemic, with the travel pause remaining in place until May 15 with no changes.

"The global COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage outside Australia's borders and the temporary pause on flights continues to give our quarantine facilities time to reduce infection rates and reduce the risk of COVID escaping into the community," the Prime Minister said.

"Closing our international borders and the use of quarantine for returning Australians has protected the health of all Australians during the pandemic and given us a way of life that is the envy of the world.

"I have written to state and territory leaders to invite their participation in receiving direct repatriation flights from India over the coming weeks to further assist the efforts in Howard Springs.

"I want to thank the Gunner Government, NT Health and our AUSMAT teams for continuing to provide safe and effective quarantine facilities at Howard Springs that is the best facility in the world."

New measures will be in place for all resuming flights from India into the Northern Territory, which will require passengers to return both a negative COVID-19 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test and a negative rapid antigen test before boarding.

Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner said these measures ensure the Commonwealth and Territory Governments can continue to get Australians home from India safely, while ensuring the case load at Howard Springs remains manageable.

"The Territory always stands ready to help our fellow Australians and we were there to help those first Aussies home from Wuhan at the start of this pandemic," Chief Minister Gunner said.

"There is a humanitarian crisis in India and we have the gold standard facility with the health care heroes the country needs at our Centre for National Resilience to help get Australians home safely.

"We are pleased with the drop in the active COVID-19 case load we have seen at Howard Springs since the temporary pause on re-entry from India, and our clinical advice is that it is now safe to resume flights."

Commonwealth and Northern Territory health experts will assess the effectiveness of new pre-flight testing and isolation measures on infectivity rates in returning Australians on these May repatriation flights from India.

Updated at 12:44pm AEST on 7 May 2021.