New South Wales citizens who are fully vaccinated will be able to visit hotels, restaurants, cafes, gyms, stadiums, live entertainment venues and retail stores beginning from the first Monday after the state reaches 70% double-dose vaccination – expected in the first or second week of October.
The NSW government unveiled its roadmap to reopen the state at its 11am press conference on Thursday, when it also reported 1,405 new Covid-19 infections and five deaths. The chief health officer, Kerry Chant, also raised concerns about the increasing number of cases in inner-Sydney suburbs including Glebe and Waterloo, as well as existing areas of concern such as Cumberland, Canterbury-Bankstown and Liverpool local government areas.
The new freedoms only apply to vaccinated people and employers will have to ensure that staff are fully vaccinated, as well as put in place check-in protocols to confirm a person’s vaccination status. The plans raise new questions about how some of the rules will be enforced and what will happen if case numbers spike.
For example, visits to people’s homes of up to five visitors will be permitted provided all adults over 16 are vaccinated. Groups of up to 20 vaccinated people will be permitted outdoors.
The premier, Gladys Berejiklian, conceded that while it would be possible to police vaccination status in indoor venues and shops with the use of enhanced QR codes and vaccine passports, the relaxations for home visits would depend on people doing the right thing.
The rules are also subject to other health measures and NSW Health will have the power to declare an area a hotspot and impose movement limitations by town, local government area or postcode.
Once the state reaches 70% double dose, movement within the state will become unrestricted – at least for fully vaccinated people.
In the case of some regional areas, including the north coast, mid-north coast, Riverina and Murrumbidgee, lockdown restrictions will lift this weekend, and schools will resume. This is not dependent on vaccination status.
The post-lockdown era will still be governed by a number of restrictions and there remains an element of doubt about what will happen in LGAs which have stubbornly high case numbers, though the current intention is to open up across the state.
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“Now, as an epidemiologist, I do not want to call it too early. But I just want to give some hope that if you continue to stick the course, we may well see declining case numbers in some of those areas, as we see vaccination rates climb,” Chant said.
She declined to say she was comfortable with the plan but agreed the plan gave certainty to business.
A number of ongoing restrictions will remain in place in the post-lockdown era, including a 4 sq metre rule inside venues, and 2 sq m requirement outside at hospitality venues, caps on attendance at stadiums of 5,000 and gym classes limited to 20 people.
Mask wearing will remain mandatory for indoor public venues including public transport and for front-of-house hospitality and retail staff.
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The premier also warned that there could be reversals if there were spikes in numbers.
“But just to be clear, at the moment, if you are 70% vaccinated, assuming all other things equal, there’s no outbreaks or high case numbers in a particular area, 70% vaccination allows you to move around anywhere in the state, so long as where you go, everybody else is vaccinated,” she said.
“But we cannot afford to have that continue if there’s a major outbreak in a particular area,” she said.
“If there’s a rural town that suddenly has an outbreak of cases, we will say to people, ‘don’t go to that town’.”
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The majority of Australians aged 18 and over are now eligible for a Covid vaccination if they are willing to consider the AstraZeneca vaccine, and provided they do not have a history of specific health conditions.
In addition to the government’s official eligibility checker, which lists some clinics near your location which might have vaccination appointments available, there are a number of other helpful resources that can help you to find somewhere that has appointments open.
You can find our comprehensive guide to finding a vaccination appointment here.
Similarly, LGAs or a part of greater Sydney might be locked down.
“If there’s high numbers of cases and a concern about an outbreak, and the vaccination rates aren’t as comfortable at a level we would like, Dr Chant is at liberty to say to the government, people in this community, even if they’re 70% double vaccinated, they can go to the hairdresser and do this and that, but they might be limited only to a radius outside their home, or within that area,” the premier said.
NSW was currently at 42.5% of our population fully vaccinated and the premier has said previously that the state would reach 70% double dose in the first or second week of October.
This would also be the same time as the biggest number of hospitalisations was expected, but Chant said the modelling suggested new case numbers would begin to fall by that time.
But she stressed that falling case numbers required everyone to follow the stay-at-home rules and to get vaccinated before the rules were relaxed.
She also foreshadowed that “there will be public health measures we may recommend based on our understanding of the circumstances of how transmission is occurring” if numbers increase.
There will also be new rules for weddings and funerals, with up to 50 people permitted provided they are vaccinated. Churches can resume services, without singing, but must also enforce the the vaccination requirements and the 4 sq m rules.
Visits to aged care facilities will also be permitted for two people at a time, as long as they are fully vaccinated and the aged care home permits it.
The return date for schools is still set for 25 October, on a staggered basis.
