Premier Daniel Andrews has announced a raft of changes to Victoria’s Covid rules from Friday, February 18.From 6pm on Friday, density limits in the states hospitality venues will be scrapped.Density limits will be removed and indoor dance floors can reopen. QR codes will be scrapped in retail, schools and many employment settings. But they remain in all “vaccinated economy” settings, such as hospitality venues. The 14-day hotel quarantine requirement for international travelers who are not fully vaccinated or medically exempt will also be reduced to seven days.“We have made it very clear that we will do everything we can to normalise this virus — to push beyond it to get as close to normal living normal activity as we could possibly achieve,” Premier Daniel Andrews said. “That’s always based on health advice. It’s always based on science and the numbers of the day and trends that we see numbers of people in hospital for instance.“But having seen Omicron peak, and in seeing the numbers continue to fall over these last few weeks, the minister has made a number of decisions.” Mr Andrews also forecast an easing of mask rules and working from home recommendations next Friday.But he said the government wanted to see a continuation of the downward trend in hospitalisations.“It is our aim to have those rules changed,” Mr Andrews said.“I’m confident that we will be able to do that … but I’m not here to make those announcements today,” he said. Health Minister Martin Foley said as community transmission continued to reduce throughout the state and vaccination coverage increases, changes to office-based restrictions would be considered from next week. “We need to see (numbers) in the next few days stabilise,” Mr Foley said. “Next Friday we will look at easing mask restrictions in office-based settings.” But Mr Foley said he was considering only allowing those who are triple-dosed to not wear masks in the office given the “added protection that it provides”. “We always said these measures wouldn’t be in place for a minute longer than they are needed, abs with hospitalisation numbers decreasing and less pressure on our health system, now is a sensible time to make changes,” Mr Andrews said.“We’re grateful to everyone who has been doing the right thing, helping to reduce the impact of this virus on the community, our healthcare system and our economy.”Mr Foley said it wasn’t “sensible” to predict what could happen in a week’s time. “We’re confident on the steps we’re announcing today and we’ll continue to consult with public health officials, hospital sectors and private businesses and a range of other stakeholders,” he said. When asked why all mask restrictions could not be eased from Friday, Mr Foley warned the pandemic was “not over”. “Masks will continue to have a role, but what we want to do is make sure it’s proportionate and used only when necessary,” he said. “I know what everybody wants – they want to be able to take their mask off inside and they want to be able to get back to normal working life,” Premier Andrews added. “We just have to wait a little bit longer, but that’s where we’re headed.”More rapid tests, air purifiers for schoolsThe state government has committed to distributing an extra 24 million rapid tests to schools and early childhood services. The continuation of the rapid test surveillance program is expected to prevent more than 61,000 Covid infections in children aged between five and 17. The state government also anticipates that keeping the program in place for the full 10 weeks of term 1 will prevent more than 150,000 wider infections in the community. Testing settings will remain the same, with all primary and secondary school students and staff, and all those in early childhood settings, encouraged to test at home twice a week. Students and staff at specialist schools are recommended to test five days a week. The state government will also implement 60,000 more air purifiers, which they say is enough to cover every single classroom in government and low-fee non-government schools. Education Minister James Merlino said the 2022 school year had kicked off “safely and successfully”. “We’re supporting that to continue, with more rapid tests, more air purifiers and higher vaccination rates to keep our schools safe and open,” he said. It comes as the state recorded 8501 new Covid cases and nine deaths on Thursday.There are 401 people in Victorian hospitals, with 78 in intensive care and 16 on ventilators.ACU referred to WorkSafe Australian Catholic University could be slapped with a health and safety notice for failing to consult staff over its plans to return to on-campus teaching.The referral to WorkSafe comes a month after Monash University was issued with a notice over similar concerns from its teaching staffThe National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) on Thursday called for WorkSafe to investigate the university’s Melbourne and Ballarat campuses over concerns staff were not asked to provide feedback about returning to work.ACU in December and January issued notices to staff working remotely advising them to return to campus by February 14.The NTEU alleges the university did not adequately consult staff about returning to work, as they are required to do under Victorian legislation.In a letter to WorkSafe, the union claimed staff were also not provided with information about the ventilation in classrooms and would not be provided with N95 face masks.NTEU ACU branch president Dr Leah Kaufmann said teaching staff had the right to be consulted about returning to work before the university finalised teaching arrangements.“At the end of 2021, our staff were informed that they would return to campus in January 2022 without regard for their circumstances, concerns, or preferences,” Dr Kaufmann said.“ACU management must provide the required consultation. Staff are asking only for what the laws require, the opportunity to understand how ACU will ensure they return to healthy and safe campuses, what their role and responsibilities are, and an assurance that ACU is taking all the reasonably practicable measures to ensure their safety.”In January, the health and safety notice issued to Monash University was withdrawn for failing to meet requirements outlined by occupational health and safety guidelines.But last week, the university’s law faculty was also forced to backtrack on its refusal to release recorded lessons to students following outrage over fears students with disabilities would miss out on content.The Herald Sun has contacted ACU for comment.Summit to discuss return of city workersA state government summit to help revive the CBD will be held this week as a business leader pleaded for workers to return to city offices.Australian Industry Group state head Tim Piper said the CBD was still greatly underperforming.“We’ve got businesses that are doing 30 per cent or less of their pre-Covid turnover, and it’s simply not good for the long-term consequences of the CBD,” he said.“We want government to consider best way to get rid of the masks.”“And we need to get the government to encourage all office workers, but particularly the public service that they have control over, to start to come into the office.”Mr Piper is among business leaders, retailers and unions invited to a government summit on Friday to discuss inner city recovery.“We’re not after a five-day a week position for office workers, but at the moment we’ve got zero days for some, and the government still says don’t come to work if you don’t have to,” he said.Managing partner of Collins St law firm Moray & Agnew, Bill Papastergiadis, said his office was only 10 per cent occupied. “The city is in serious need of capital injection and activity,” he said.“At 4pm most city streets are empty.” Mr Papastergiadis blamed Melbourne City Council works during lockdowns to remove car parking spaces and vehicle lanes for keeping people away from the CBD.“Issues relating to car parking and access to cars can have a positive impact on people coming back to the city,” he said.Mr Piper said the city needed “to break the mindset of self isolation”.“People are comfortable in their own environment, there’s a lingering apprehension, people still remain concerned (about Covid),” he said.“We were locked up for so long, and it’s very hard to pull people out of the malaise that we currently have.”Meanwhile, more than 20 inner city shopfronts have now been transformed through a City of Melbourne program.They include a pop-up diner in Lygon St, Carlton, a Japanese streetwear outlet in the CBD’s Howey Place and a podcast centre in the city’s Victoria Hotel.“We’ve received 460 expressions of interest from prospective tenants to be involved in our shopfront activation program, including artists, creatives, start-ups and independent retailers,” said Lord Mayor Sally Capp. The $2.6m shopfront activation program is part of the $100 million Melbourne City Recovery Fund sponsored by the council and the state government.
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