“If you’re not vaccinated, you’re not getting in,” says Premier Daniel Andrews. melbournereopens covid19
Unvaccinated adults and older children will be barred from accessing all but basic services until 2023 under the Victorian government’s path back to freedom announced by the Premier on Sunday.
Mr Andrews was unable to say when the vaccination rules might end, but he thought “it’s going to be there for the entirety of 2022”. He said the public health team was only confident in dropping almost all restrictions at 90 per cent because of large-scale vaccination requirements well into next year.
Mr Andrews said those who were unvaccinated could still visit other people’s homes and shop for the basics, but they would be barred from the vast majority of other venues. “Do we want to make kids suffer for a decision that a parent has made, whatever the reason, particularly given that children present less of a transmission risk of COVID?”
Liberty Victoria president Julia Kretzenbacher believes a time limit should be placed on vaccine passports and the government should also consider less-restrictive measures of reducing COVID-19 spread, such as rapid testing. The advice to work from home will end at the 90 per cent target and fully vaccinated Victorians will be permitted to return to worksites, while almost all events will be allowed to go ahead without density limits and caps on attendance. However, events where there are significant numbers of young children, currently not eligible for a vaccine, in attendance will not be permitted to operate at full capacity.
“I’m pretty confident we’re going to be over 95 per cent, including those aged 12 and over, which is phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal,” she said.