From tonight, all density limits in ACT venues will be removed, for the first time in nearly two years; patrons can stand while eating and drinking; dancing is back; and employees can return to the workplace. More restrictions will be eased over the next fortnight, including (it is expected) facemasks.
However, Canberrans should be prepared for restrictions to return, Chief Minister Andrew Barr warned.
“We are cautiously optimistic about the autumn period, but we have an expectation of a further wave combining with the flu season in winter,” Mr Barr said. “That still remains a period of concern.
“We could be back at any given time announcing the reintroduction of restrictions if there’s a new variant or if we start seeing a significant spike in cases.”
In fact, Mr Barr said, the pandemic “has no end date”.
“We’re going to be living with this for years. We’ve all got to just get a little bit more used to there being nuances and changes from time to time that aren’t earth-shattering. They aren’t the end of the world, or ‘freedom day’. Got to move away from all of that, because that’s not pandemic management in the third year, the fourth year, the fifth year, and however long we’re going to be living with this – which at this point has no end date.”
ACT follows NSW lead
The ACT planned to ease pandemic restrictions next week, but NSW premier Dominic Perrottet’s announcement yesterday has brought that decision forward by several days, Mr Barr said.
Mr Perrottet decreed yesterday that the requirement to wear face masks inside, QR check-in requirements, the direction for employees to work from home, the ban on singing and dancing, and the two-metre density limit for indoor venues would be lifted today.
Mr Barr said the decision had “a little influence in terms of timing”.
Last week, ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said some health measures, including density limits in hospitality and retail venues and the ban on dancing in nightclubs, could be scrapped on 25 February.
Every couple of weeks, Mr Barr said, the ACT reviewed restrictions put in place before Christmas at the peak of the omicron outbreak, with the intention to ease them once the ACT stabilised.
Ms Stephen-Smith said the government expected a potential increase in cases when schools went back. There had been a slight increase over the last few days, but not a steep or significant increase. That confirmed the situation had stabilised, the minister said.
Mr Perrottet’s decision was “somewhat of a surprise announcement,” Mr Barr said. The easing of restrictions in NSW was scheduled for next week – and that seems to have still been the case when east coast jurisdiction chief health officers met on Tuesday, and the ACT cabinet was briefed on Wednesday morning.
Opposition leader Elizabeth Lee welcomed the easing of restrictions, as the Canberra Liberals and the business community had called for. She thought, however, that the ACT Government was unprepared for the NSW announcement.
“There’s no doubt that they were wrong-footed, that they’re flying blind, and now they’re playing catch-up,” she said.
“What we have seen is the NSW coming out, and a couple of days later, after umming and ahing and going: ‘Hey, what are we going to do? You know what, me too!’
“I feel like saying to the people of Canberra: if you want to know what’s going to happen next, actually just pay attention more to the NSW premier’s press conferences.”
Continue to be COVID-smart
The ACT Government will change facemask requirements next week. Last week, Ms Stephen-Smith said the indoor mask mandate was set to remain in place for several months; Dr Kerryn Coleman expected them to “remain in place, probably right through winter from this point,” the minister had reported.
“Things change regularly, advice changes regularly, and things will change again,” Mr Barr said. “That’s an absolute certainty. That’s the only thing I am certain of!”
Once density limits end tonight, Mr Barr expected Canberrans would be “reasonably comfortable” going to restaurants and shops, but people with health issues would “still feel rightly feel very cautious”.
Ms Stephen-Smith recognised that these changes could make some people nervous, and less inclined to go out. She urged the public to continue to be COVID-smart.
“Take hand and respiratory hygiene precautions. Don’t go out when you are unwell. Keep your physical distance from people that you don’t know. Wear masks indoors, where you can’t maintain that physical distance.”
Next week, the Check In CBR app will start automatically notifying people if they have been in a higher risk setting during a COVID-19 exposure.
Other restrictions easing
Employees will be able to return to their workplace where it suits them and their employer – a relief to cafés whose takings have suffered. Eighty per cent of the ACT public service were already in their normal workplaces, Mr Barr said. They work in health facilities, hospitals, or community health centres, or are teachers, bus drivers, ambulance drivers, and firefighters.
Only 10 to 15 per cent of the administrative workforce have been in a hybrid working arrangement. It is a small proportion of the workforce, Mr Barr emphasised: hundreds, not thousands, of people. They will return gradually, directorate by directorate.
The bulk of the federal public service, however, are white-collar workers; Mr Barr expected the Public Service Commissioner and Commonwealth departmental secretaries would make decisions about their return department by department.
Elective surgeries will resume at Calvary Public Hospital Bruce, and the hospital will soon return to full capacity.
The ACT has a backlog of 500 elective surgeries postponed by restrictions, even though elective surgeries continued at Canberra Hospital and in the private health system. Government health services will try to catch up on them this year, and Ms Stephen-Smith was confident the ACT would meet its target for elective surgeries, as it meets its goal of 60,000 over the next four years. This year’s target will be lower than last year’s, when more than 15,000 elective surgeries occurred in the ACT – 1,000 more than the ACT ever delivered before in a single year.
