Scott Morrison and the chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, have laid out a three-step plan to reopen Australia after the coronavirus crisis.
Each state and territory will move at their own pace throughout the stages, yet the Prime Minister hopes that this will hopefully be completed by July.
An important re-introduction for members of the Australian community, the Prime Minister announced that funerals will now be permitted to hold up to 20 people indoors, and 30 outdoors.
Step 1 restriction relaxations will also allow religious gatherings, including wedding services in the Greek Orthodox Church, to now hold up to 10 guests.
National Cabinet will review the progress of each step every three weeks, to see what impact the changes have on coronavirus infection numbers
“Basically, we’ll go round the grounds of the premiers and chief ministers and see how it’s going,” Mr Morrison said.
“They’re not formal reviews, I’d describe it more as stock takes … and how we’re going towards our ultimate aspiration of being there in July.”
Below is a precise layout of the three step framework, provided by the Australian Government, along with details of the restriction relaxation in the words of the Australian Prime Minister.
Step One
Step one will enable greater connection with friends and family, allowing gatherings up to 10 people, and five guests in your own home. Working from home, if it works for you, and your employer. It will see children back in classrooms and in playgrounds in their communities. Golfers back on the green. Lap swimmers back in the pool. Boot camps back in the parks. Retail and small cafes and restaurants reopening. Interstate recreational travel, starting again. It will see easing of restrictions for funerals with up to 30 attendees, outdoors, and 10 at weddings.
Step two
Step two will allow larger size gatherings up to 20 people, including for venues such as cinemas and galleries, more retail openings on sector-based COVID safe plans, organised community sport, and beauty parlours, and you’ll be pleased to know, barre classes open once again.
Step three
Step three, allowing gatherings up to 100 people. This will become clearer as we move through the first two steps. So there will be more work to do on step 3. But most workers, by then, will be back in the workplace. Interstate travel will likely resume. Pubs and clubs with some restrictions will be open. And also possibly gaming venues. As I said, steps three, step three, but also step two, will get greater definition as we move through the success of step one.
