Lockdown restrictions in Melbourne lifted as of midnight last night with people able to leave their home for any reason.
Oakleigh, Melbourne’s Greek precinct, came back to life on Wednesday as patrons were able to visit their favorite Hellenic cafes and restaurants.
Metropolitan Melbourne has been subject to Stage 4 restrictions since 2 August 2020 with residents under stay at home orders following a second wave of COVID-19 cases in the community.
Here’s is what has changed:
Visiting friends and family
Visiting people in their homes will be allowed, but limited to no more than two adults, plus their dependents, per day.
People in Melbourne must also to abide by the 25km rule and cannot travel any further to visit someone in their home.
The metropolitan-regional border also remains and cannot be breached for the purposes of visiting.
Mr Andrews said the home was “actually the most dangerous environment for the spread of this virus” because people let their guard down, and there’s no supervision or industrial cleaning.
“Only one such visiting event can occur per day,” Mr Andrews said.
Retail and hospitality
All retail stores will be allowed to reopen.
Beauty, personal services and tattoo parlours can return as long as customers can wear a mask throughout the procedure.
For the first time in months, hospitality businesses will be allowed to seat patrons, including inside.
Restaurants, cafes, bars and pubs will be allowed to seat a maximum of 20 people indoors, provided there are no more than 10 people per space and no more than one person for every 4 square metres.
Outdoors will be restricted to one person per 2 square metres, up to a maximum of 50 patrons.
Groups will be capped at 10 people, seated 1.5 metres from other groups.
Community sport is back for kids and adults
All outdoor sport will return for those aged under 18.
Adults will be allowed to participate in non-contact outdoor sport.
Weddings, funerals and religious gatherings
Weddings will increase to a maximum of 10 people.
Funerals will increase to a maximum of 20 mourners.
Indoor religious gatherings will be capped at 10 people indoors, or 20 people outdoors, plus one faith leader.
Additional changes, including the 25km travel limit for Melburnians, will be introduced on November 8.
November 8 will also be the day Victorians get a sense of what the rest of November, and indeed Christmas, might look like with the Premier set to unveil an updated roadmap.
