Melbourne residents will be allowed to have two adults and two children visit their homes each day, as Premier Daniel Andrews announces a range of new home visitation rules as the city’s lockdown ends at midnight tonight.
It’s good news for Melburnians, who have endured four months of lockdown conditions.
The city today recorded a second day with no new COVID-19 cases and no deaths.
There are now also just four active cases linked to aged care facilities in Melbourne.
But while the news is good, the rules around home visitation are rigid, with the Premier declaring that homes are public enemy number one for the spread of the deadly virus.
“I want to make again the point, arguably your home is the most dangerous place for the spread of this virus,” Mr Andrews said.
“I know that jars with people, may not sound right, but when you think about it, that’s where people let their guard down, where people are not being supervised – not like a cafe, not like going to the pub where it’s a licensed environment, a regulated environment,” he said.
“When you let your guard down this virus will take advantage of you and that’s why there do have to be rules. But we’ll be pleased to announce that people will be able to reconnect again from 11.59 tonight.”
Under the new rules, two adults will be able to visit another home, accompanied by two dependents – however, Mr Andrews said those children cannot be left unsupervised during visits.
He said visits must occur within the 25km limit and residents will only be able to make one visit, or receive one set of visitors per day.
“Meaning if you have somebody over to your house at, say, lunchtime, you can’t visit another house that night,” explained the Premier.
“So mum and dad and two children can go and visit grandma and grandpa, they can be there provided they’re within the 25km, they can be there for as long as they choose to be there, but once they leave, neither they can go and visit anybody else, nor can grandma and grandpa have other visitors that day.
“This is just about making sure that people can connect, but we can’t have a situation where people are having visitors in the morning, visitors at lunchtime, visitors in the evening, and then each of those visitors are, in turn, going and visiting other hems also. “
The current rolling average for metropolitan Melbourne is 2.8 and for regional Victoria it’s just 0.2.
“Now they are the numbers of the day and they are numbers that every Victorian can be very proud of because every Victorian has built those numbers through sacrifice, through hard work, through hurt and pain, but through an absolute determination to defeat this second wave,” said Mr Andrews.
