Victorians granted more freedom as restrictions ease

Beauty and personal care services, entertainment venues and swimming pools will be allowed to reopen from June 1 under a significant easing of restrictions announced by Premier Daniel Andrews. From June 1, the limit on outdoor and indoor gatherings at private residences will be raised to 20 people, and overnight stays can recommence. The restrictions on funerals and weddings will also be lifted to 50 and 20 people respectively. Libraries, youth centres, other community facilities, and entertainment and cultural venues will be allowed to reopen from June 1 but physical distancing and a limit of 20 people per space will apply and venues will be required to keep customers contacts. Mr Andrews credited the discipline of Victorians in addition to the widespread testing of residents for allowing the state government to have “more options” to reopen the state. “By the end of May, we will have well over 200,000 tests. That is what gives us options … The more people that get tested, the more options we have, to not make changes based on guesswork, but instead to make changes based on what the data is telling us,” Mr Andrews said. “This is all about opening up again, but doing so because we have got some new test results, and we can be confident about how much virus is out there Victorian community. It is about taking slow, cautious, steady, graduated and safe steps.”

from National | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/2WYo0s2