Goya Dmytryshchak
Victoria’s fifth lockdown will end at 11.59 tonight but new settings will remain in place for at least two weeks.
Victoria’s COVID-19 commander Jeroen Weimar said there were 10 new COVID-19 cases recorded on Tuesday, bringing the total number of active cases to 188.
All 10 had been isolating.
Residents of the Ariele Apartment complex in Maribyrnong tomorrow end their 14-day quarantine after being exposed to Sydney removalists who spread the Delta variant and sparked the lockdown.
Mr Weimar said the trio who entered Victoria on July 8 would not be charged.
“Department of Health (DH) completed its investigation yesterday and [Victoria Police] reviewed the file yesterday and overnight and have confirmed that no further action will be taken,” he said.
“The DH, under its standing powers, will issue a small fine of $200 to one of the removalists for failing to comply with mask wearing.”
From tomorrow, the five reasons to leave home and five kilometre travel limit will end.
Students can return to schools.
Restaurants, cafes and gyms can reopen for seated service with density quotients and community sport will return.
Victoria will return to the rule that ‘if you can work from home, you should work from home’ but office workers will be able to return up to 25 per cent or 10 people, whichever is greater.
Masks are mandatory indoors and outside.
The list of exposure sites across Maribyrnong and Hobsons Bay has reduced but the Newport post office at 6 Hall Street was last week added as a tier two exposure site.
A case attended the venue on Tuesday, July 20 from 12.20-1pm.
Public gatherings are limited to 10 people and weddings and funerals restricted to 50 excluding those conducting the events and children under 12.
No visitors are permitted in the home, which Premier Daniel Andrews described as the “highest risk” environment.
“We regard the home as what it is – it is in many respects from a transmission of this virus point of view, the highest risk environment,” he said.
“So, no visitors to your home for the next two weeks.
“If we can change at the point, obviously we will, but the advice is we have to continue to regard those environments as high risk.”
Mr Andrews said there would no crowds at large events for at least two weeks.
He appealed to those in isolation to wait for clearance from the Department of Health before re-entering the community.
“You can’t clear yourself, you have to get your negative test and you must be cleared by the Department of Health,” he said.
“My message to you is thank you so much for what you’ve done and are doing but please do not make your own judgement that your quarantine has ended – that is a judgement that must be made formally and it must be made on the basis of a negative test.
“We have had people who have tested negative early on and then tested positive in their day-13 test.”
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