Pubs and cafes would no longer be required to ensure customers check in with QR codes to show their vaccine status.Rules that force close contacts to isolate for seven days are also likely to be pared back, as the state moves with New South Wales to loosen Covid restrictions.The Herald Sun has confirmed the government will approve ending the vaccinated economy, which has been in place since October and bans people from attending various venues unless double-dosed.It comes as daily case numbers fall – to 8976 on Tuesday, down from 10,293 at the same time last week – and as pressure has been ramping up to ditch the restrictions.The Herald Sun this week revealed that Victorian and NSW business groups had united to lobby for the rules to be lifted. Hospitality workers were pleading for an end to the jab mandate due to the intense abuse they were copping from customers when enforcing the government’s ban.Premier Daniel Andrews has repeatedly hinted that Victoria was nearing the end of the vaccinated economy.However, sources said officials were debating the timing, and whether vaccine mandates for workers would be scaled back.“They’ve now ticked off on the end of the vaccinated economy, and an announcement is imminent,” one senior source said. “The Premier always wanted to get to the other side of the Grand Prix.”Close-contact requirements, which have been criticised by businesses as a major contributor to staff shortages, are also set to be wound back. Victoria and NSW have been discussing changing these rules around the same time, and an announcement from NSW Premier Dom Perrottet is expected within days.It’s understood worker vaccine mandates in Victoria could also be scrapped, except in high-risk settings. With the state’s seven-day average for Covid cases falling, Mr Andrews on Monday suggested restrictions were about to be wound back.“The seven-day average, very pleasingly, is coming down,” he said. “I’m not the chief health officer, but that says to me that the peak has come and gone.“We just have to wait and see, though, that those few days of data turn into the trend that we hope it is.”Mr Andrews said he was expecting some “positive announcements” from Health Minister Martin Foley in the near future.“As I’ve said consistently for a few weeks now, once we got past the peak (and) once we started to see case numbers coming down, we would have more options,” he said. “We’ll get down to very, very few rules very soon. That’s good for business, it’s good for communities, and it’s thanks to Victorians getting vaccinated.”Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said a much more commonsense approach to vaccine mandates was overdue.“It’s time to stop denying Victorians access to locations and services based on their vax status, excepting, of course, reasonable restrictions in high-risk settings,” he said.Melbourne restaurant owner Chris Lucas said: “We need to move on in the post-Covid era, and to do so we need to remove all of the rules and the mandates to allow business to get on with the job of rebuilding.“If we don’t do so, we face a future where many small businesses fall over because they’re just making ends meet, if they haven’t collapsed already.”
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