VICTORIAN Premier Daniel Andrews has foreshadowed “substantial relief” for regional Victoria “very soon”.
In a Zoom hookup with Victoria’s regional media on Wednesday, Mr Andrews said regional Victorians had done an “amazing job” at keeping COVID-19 numbers low and that could be rewarded by endorsing “a whole lot of different businesses open”.
Mildura has not recorded a coronavirus case for months and civic and government leaders have criticised the Victorian Government’s regional “roadmap” out of restrictions and lockdown released on Sunday as not enough to save struggling businesses.
The government proposed separate four-step phases for regional Victoria and metropolitan Melbourne under thresholds of new cases over a 14-day period.
However, Mr Andrews said on Wednesday progress towards preconditions for the further easing of restrictions in regional Victoria was “very encouraging” and the easing of restrictions could be fast-tracked in regional areas.
“There’s every chance that regional Victoria doesn’t take just one step and go to the second step … on the numbers as they are now,” Mr Andrews said.
“I think regional Victoria will be able to take, not just the second, but the third step relatively soon,” he said.
The fourth and last step of restrictions before moving to COVID-normal would remove restrictions surrounding leaving home, enable public gatherings of up to 50 people and up to 20 visitors to homes at a time.
Retail stores would open, intrastate travel would be allowed and indoor and outdoor venues would open with a density quotient and patron caps.
Mr Andrews said the government had hesitated in imposing different zones for different restrictions due to the complexity of having “wildly different rules across regional Victoria”.
“If we were proposing that regional Victoria wouldn’t take the second or third steps for, say, six or eight weeks, we would have gone to different zones and tried to be as generous as possible,” he said.
“(But) because it’s only a matter of weeks … I think it could be very soon.
“The best thing we can do is wait and see when those thresholds are met, how things unfold in the immediate aftermath of that very significant easing and then operate on the very best health advice about what is the lowest risk for the highest economic return.”
