Victorian lockdown ending tonight as state records no new cases

Victorian lockdown ending tonight as state records no new cases

With no new cases recorded in Victoria overnight, the state's Premier Daniel Andrews has announced the five-day "circuit-breaker" lockdown will end tonight.

As such, from 11.59pm AEDT today, most of the harsh restrictions will fall away with Victoria essentially returning to pre-lockdown rules.

Victorians will be allowed to leave the house for any reason and can travel anywhere they like within the state as the 5km bubble rule is removed.

However, masks will still be required to be worn indoors, and outdoors where physical distancing is not possible.

Households will be permitted to have five visitors at any one time, and schools will reopen tomorrow.

Public and private sector workers can return to the office with 50 per cent allowed on site.

Retail and hospitality can resume with the same density limits that were applied pre-lockdown.

The same goes for religious gatherings, weddings, and funerals, which must abide by location-specific density limits.

Sport can resume, and entertainment will also restart with capacity limits in place

Andrews said the next nine days will be vital to ensure the current Holiday Inn outbreak remains under control.

"There are still nine days to go for the 14-day period of the last of the positive cases," Andrews said.

"Next Friday we'll be able to be even more definitive about the epidemiological picture across the state.

"And that means that whilst we can revert to almost all of the settings that applied last Friday, our COVID-safe Summer settings, there are some exceptions."

The news comes as Victoria reports no new locally transmitted cases of COVID-19, and none in hotel quarantine.

These good results came from 39,258 test results the biggest single day of testing that Victoria has done throughout the pandemic.

"To see so many people go and get tested is proof that we know what to do, we stick together, there's great community spirit and its really acknowledgement that this is a shared challenge," said Andrews.

Updated at 10.57am AEDT on 17 February 2021.

 

Get our daily business news

Sign up to our free email news updates.

Please tick to verify that you are not a robot

 
Coraggio: the ‘life-changing’ impact of a unique business community
Partner Content
Richard Skarzynski has been a private business owner for the past 40 years, building a ...
Coraggio
Advertisement

Related Stories

ARA forecasts $490m Halloween treat for retailers

ARA forecasts $490m Halloween treat for retailers

Australians are expected to spend 14 per cent more on Halloween fes...

Costa board accepts $1.4b takeover offer from Paine Schwartz, Driscoll’s and BCI

Costa board accepts $1.4b takeover offer from Paine Schwartz, Driscoll’s and BCI

One of Australia’s largest fruit and vegetable producers, Cos...

Australia's top home builders revealed

Australia's top home builders revealed

Melbourne-based Metricon has kept its status as Australia's lar...

Hospitality platforms Mr Yum and me&u merging to become a new global giant

Hospitality platforms Mr Yum and me&u merging to become a new global giant

Australian tech scale-ups me&u and Mr Yum are merging to create...