Page 1819 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 22 June 2021
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Following the Victorian government’s announcement that it would ease stay-at-home restrictions for greater Melbourne from 11 June 2021, the ACT also lifted restrictions, enabling the stay-at-home requirement to be lifted for approximately 900 people in the ACT.
While the ACT’s stay-at-home restrictions were in place, non-ACT residents were not permitted to travel from Victoria to the ACT unless they had an exemption approved by ACT Health. Exemptions are only provided in exceptional circumstances, including for reasons such as essential work, compassionate purposes or to receive medical treatment.
Returning ACT residents were required to complete an online declaration form 24 hours prior to arrival. ACT Health received a total of 12,293 self-declarations for travellers returning from Victoria. ACT Health also received 657 exemption applications from non-ACT residents to enter the ACT. Of these, 187 were approved, 147 were rejected, 93 required no exemption at the time of application as the applicant may have been transiting, flight crew or freight transporters. In addition 230 applications were withdrawn, mainly due to the change in public health requirements from 11.59 pm on 10 June which meant an exemption was no longer required to travel to the ACT.
There were a small number of close and casual contacts identified in the ACT associated with the Victorian outbreak. ACT Health identified a total of 46 close contacts and 81 casual contacts linked to positive cases or exposure locations. I would like to thank these individuals for coming forward and contacting ACT Health, and for cooperating with necessary testing and isolation requirements.
Restrictions have now been eased in Victoria, allowing metropolitan Melbourne residents to travel beyond a 25-kilometre radius, including to regional Victoria. Unfortunately, the outbreak continues, with exposure sites being identified regularly. For this reason the ACT is maintaining the requirement for a travel declaration to be completed for anyone travelling from Victoria to the ACT. This requirement will be reviewed again on 24 June. While this measure does not equate to formal travel restrictions, the declaration process enables ACT Health to contact individuals who have travelled from Victoria to the ACT, should the situation worsen.
On 1 June 2021, New South Wales issued a public health alert regarding a confirmed case of COVID-19 from Victoria, who visited venues in the Shoalhaven and Goulburn local government areas and the Jervis Bay territory while infectious. Given these areas are frequently visited by Canberrans, the ACT responded quickly to advise people in the ACT who had been in New South Wales in the last 14 days to please check for COVID-19 areas of concern. Extensive follow-up of close and casual contacts from these sites did not identify any new locally acquired cases in the ACT.
On 9 June 2021, the Queensland government reported a new positive case in a person who travelled to Queensland, via New South Wales, from Melbourne. A close contact of the first case also tested positive and a number of exposure sites across New South Wales and Queensland were identified from this trip. ACT Health was equally timely
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