Page 1305 - Week 05 - Thursday, 18 June 2020
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We have seen very high rates of compliance as we have progressed through Canberra’s recovery plan, and I commend and thank ACT businesses for this. We have recently launched a “choose local” campaign, and it is great to see members across the chamber and the Canberra community doing just that—choosing local to support our local businesses.
Thanks to the hard work of the Canberra community and local businesses, the ACT government will further ease restrictions from 12 noon tomorrow, Friday, 19 June. This follows the release of our road map on 26 May, which allowed three weeks between stages to monitor the impact and implementation of stage 2.1 from 11.59 pm on Friday, 29 May. Significantly, stage 2.2 of our recovery plan will move the restrictions from 20-person gathering limits to 100 people, provided that one person per four square metres is maintained. That is an increase from the 50 people originally planned for stage 2.2, reflecting the strong position we are in.
Unlike in some jurisdictions that have had vastly different gathering and customer numbers for different sectors over recent weeks, the ACT Chief Health Officer has again kept it largely consistent across the economy and community, moving from the rule of 20 to the rule of 100. This means that more community and business activities will be able to recommence, with a new maximum occupancy limit per enclosed space of 100 people or one person per four square metres, whichever is lesser. So from lunchtime tomorrow cafes, restaurants, bars and other licensed venues can seat up to 100 people per enclosed space and will be able to serve alcohol without a meal to seated patrons.
Gyms, health clubs and fitness centres will have greater flexibility to reopen free weight rooms and to conduct circuit training, with regular cleaning, while contact sports can start full training from 19 June and transition back to competition from 10 July. Non-contact sports are already well underway and from tomorrow will be able to involve a maximum of 100 people or one per four square metres, which will enable competition to restart.
Local theatres, cinemas and concert venues will also be able to reopen, and the maximum occupancy at places of worship will increase to 100 people for those facilities that can manage the one person per four square metre rule.
While we are allowing larger gatherings, we need to continue to mitigate the public health risks by having appropriate control measures in place. This is not just a requirement for businesses; it extends to all Canberrans. The Chief Health Officer has advised that many factors have been taken into consideration in the decision to progress easing of restrictions more quickly, including excellent business engagement and compliance, testing numbers well over 24,000 and no evidence of community transmission. Provided these measures do not result in any significant increase in cases or any other signs of concern across the territory, we plan to move to stage 3 of our recovery plan in July.
These latest changes are outlined in Canberra’s recovery plan: COVID-19 easing of restrictions roadmap, version 2.0, which is available on the ACT COVID-19 website.
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