Page 1042 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 May 2020
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Over the coming weeks and months, Canberrans can expect that the easing of restrictions will continue in a gradual and careful manner, allowing our public health experts time to assess the impact of each decision.
The most recent changes came into effect from 11.59 pm on Friday, 15 May 2020 and included: easing restrictions on cafes and restaurants, allowing venues to seat up to 10 patrons at one time if they can follow physical distancing; reopening a number of public places across Canberra, including playgrounds and outdoor fitness areas, dog parks, skate parks and BBQ areas, parks and nature reserves; reopening community centres, community facilities or youth centres, with a maximum of 10 people; reopening libraries, with a one person per four square metre rule in place; reopening commercial pools, with a maximum of 10 people per pool and one swimmer per lane; and allowing non-contact, outdoor community and social sport to restart with a maximum of 10 people.
These changes are in addition to those on gatherings which came into effect from 11.59 pm on Friday, 8 May, including that: all indoor and outdoor gatherings can have a maximum of 10 people, with larger households also allowed to visit one another; weddings can now have up to 10 people attend, excluding those conducting the ceremony; indoor funerals can have up to 20 mourners and outdoor funerals up to 30 people attend, excluding those conducting the service; religious ceremonies and places of worship can have up to 10 people attend, excluding those conducting the service; outdoor boot camps and personal fitness training, non-contact, can be held with a maximum of 10 people and no sharing of equipment; and real estate open houses and auctions can proceed with a maximum of 10 people.
The easing of restrictions will be a staged process, as we need to ensure that any changes are sustainable in the long term, and with our most vulnerable community members in mind. We will need Canberrans to continue playing their part to prevent a new wave of cases. The national cabinet has laid out a clear three-step plan for the further easing of restrictions, while acknowledging that each jurisdiction has its own circumstances that will guide the timing and order in which restrictions are eased. Some jurisdictions, of course, have closed their borders—an option that is not available to us—and have indicated that this will be one of the last measures lifted.
It is not rocket science to point out that the ACT has some unique opportunities as we consider our options in moving to step 2 of the national framework. However, as an island within a state that still has new COVID-19 cases almost every day, the mature and sensible approach is to carefully plan our path forward on the basis of the best evidence available to us.
As the Chief Minister has said, Canberra’s recovery plan will see decisions on the further easing of restrictions, with the gradual implementation of step 2 of the national cabinet’s framework gradually implemented from midnight on Friday, 29 May, effectively starting from Saturday, 30 May.
Madam Speaker, the ACT government has worked hard to suppress the virus over recent weeks through aggressive contact tracing of confirmed cases, timely quarantine
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