In a move which signals NSW is now “living alongside” the virus, the Perrottet government will axe the rule enforcing isolation on healthy people who live with someone who tests positive to Covid-19.The announcement will be made in tandem with the Victorian government, with both state premiers talking well into Tuesday night in a bid to get the rule change across the line.Close contact isolation rules were among the restrictions considered by senior ministers in a cabinet subcommittee meeting last night. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said yesterday his state’s remaining Covid rules would be relaxed “very soon”.It comes after The Daily Telegraph backed business groups in their calls for state governments to end the isolation rules starving industries of staff. Earlier this month, Health Minister Brad Hazzard quickly moved to exempt airport workers from close contact isolation requirements after travellers faced enormous queues.Airport workers joined workers from a raft of industries exempt from isolation including healthcare, manufacturing, transport, warehousing, utilities, education, media, and funerals.Senior ministers are also working to relax a number of peripheral Covid rules, but a requirement for people to wear masks on public transport is set to remain.The news of an imminent close contact rule change has been welcomed by Business NSW.“We’d welcome any change to the isolation rules to enable perfectly healthy people to be able to go back to work if they are a close contact, so long as they produce a negative result to a RAT,” a spokesman said. “It’s blatantly unfair that some workers in some industries have been able to work despite being close contacts, while others have not, causing huge disruptions to small businesses in particular who have had to close down operations due to being short staffed.”“This is about getting the economy moving again and allowing businesses to be able to plan with confidence.Earlier on Tuesday, Labor leader Chris Minns said scrapping strict isolation rules for close contacts “may well be appropriate” as long as it was done “with the best advice and information provided by health professionals”.“A rapid antigen test with a negative result may well be appropriate given herd immunity is far greater today than it was months ago and certainly in the dark days of winter 2021,” he said.
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