A “MODEST” easing of COVID-19 restrictions in regional Victoria from Friday will not ease the burden on many Sunraysia business operators, according to industry insiders.
While the easing of restrictions for regional areas – with the exception of Greater Shepparton – was welcomed as a “positive first step”, not all have embraced strict limitations on patron numbers.
Mildura Regional Development (MRD) said there would be “the good and the bad” arising from the measures and it would be some time before most businesses could bounce back.
The easing of restrictions from midnight Thursday came despite five new cases in regional Victoria on Wednesday including the first case in Mildura since July.
The government said it was investigating the reasons why the Melbourne resident travelled to Mildura, but conceded there were “a few exposures related to that trip”.
The Department of Health and Human Services, however, listed only one exposure site – Dan Murphy’s on Fifteenth Street – where the positive case visited.
Anyone who visited the Tier 2 exposure site between 3pm and 3.35pm last Friday should get tested urgently and isolate until they have a confirmed negative result.
MRD chief executive Brett Millington said the messaging he had received from “many” local hospitality businesses was that it was not worthwhile reopening while maximum patron limits remained low.
“With anything, there’s the good and the bad, but we can only hope that as we get a bit more certainty, then opportunities for further opening can occur,” Mr Millington said.
“Some businesses will benefit more than others with an easing of restrictions and it’s probably the larger hospitality businesses that have more seating places that the economic decision comes into it,” he said.
“At least we are taking some steps towards what we would call a certainty or normality.”
Mr Millington said that wile he could understand the conservative approach to reopening, it remained challenging for businesses, particularly with school holidays nearing.
“The government has been so cautious of this (Delta) variant and its ability to spread,” he said.
“If there was a case and you have people attending a number of venues it can quickly become locked in within a community in isolation and we’ve seen that happen ourselves previously,” he said.
“I think people will come back to hospitality venues when they can because everyone is just hanging out for somewhere to go, so I do think it will bounce back quickly.”
Premier Daniel Andrews warned that while “a degree of freedom” for regional Victoria had been hard won, any cases that emerge in coming weeks would be met with “a focused and targeted series of measures”.
“It’s not a snapback, it’s not freedom day, it’s not 100 per cent of capacity down at the pub – it can’t be,” Mr Andrews said.
“If it is, then we’ll simply see numbers spread and then we’ll have to close large parts of regional Victoria down again and perhaps even all of regional Victoria,” he said.
“I fully concede it is not everything that everybody would want, but it is what’s safe and it is what we believe can be made sustainable.
“It’s not essentially an invitation for cases to get out of control and then us having to take steps backwards … we want to try to avoid that.”
Mr Andrews said the new measures would remain in place until the end of September and vaccination rates and COVID case numbers would be relevant considerations about what October and November looks like in regional Victoria.
