Reintroduced public health measures will require people in the ACT to wear a facemask indoors from 11.59pm tonight, while visitor restrictions for residential aged care facilities will be tightened.

Facemasks will once again be mandatory in all indoor settings in the ACT other than place of residence.

From 11.59pm tonight, residential aged care residents will be restricted to five visitors per day with a maximum of five visitors at any one time.

There will be no daily limit on the number of visitors for end-of-life visits.

Masks will, of course, be mandatory for residential age care facility staff and visitors.

Chief Health Officer, Dr Kerryn Coleman, said the restrictions come about due to “around half” the ACT’s active cases being confirmed as the Omicron variant, and rising case numbers in NSW.

No confirmed Omicron cases in the ACT have required hospitalisation so far.

In the 24 hours to 8pm yesterday NSW recorded 3,057 new cases.

“We anticipate that we will see an escalation in case numbers similar to what we’ve seen in NSW in the most recent weeks,” Dr Coleman said.

Ninety-one cases were recorded in the ACT last week, a “significant increase” on the 36 cases recorded the week prior.

“We are seeing an increasing proportion of these being the Omicron variant,” Chief Health Officer Dr Kerryn Coleman said.

Due to some limitations in genomic sequencing, Dr Coleman said the “roughly half of active cases” figure is the “minimum” proportion of Omicron in the community.

The genomic sequencing of all cases will come to an end due to the expectation Omicron will shortly become the dominant variant in the Territory.

At this stage, these requirements will be in place over the Christmas and New Year period and reviewed in January.

“I know that it’s tough for all of us to be seeing more restrictions as we come into the Christmas and festive season,” Acting Chief Minister, Yvette Berry said.

However, should there be a significant change in the COVID-19 situation in the ACT, the public health response may be reviewed sooner.

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