Melbourne’s coronavirus restrictions ease, so what are the new rules?

After a “cautious pause” to await thousands of test results in Melbourne’s north, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has provided a long-awaited update to Melbourne’s coronavirus restrictions.

The city will be able to take some “big steps” from 11:59pm on Tuesday October 27.

Here’s what’s changing.

Leaving home, the 25km limit and the ‘ring of steel’

People in Melbourne will be allowed to leave their home for any reason. The four permitted reasons, which have been in place for months, are being scrapped.

However, for people in Melbourne the 25-kilometre travel limit will remain in place until 11:59pm on November 8.

The “ring of steel” between metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria will also remain until that date.

Visiting friends and family

Visiting people at their homes will be allowed from Wednesday. Melburnians will be able to host daily visits from up to two adults and their dependents from another household from 11:59pm tonight 

The visits must remain within the 25-kilometre radius rule and the once-a-day rule applies to both the people hosting a visit and those attending.

Households will also be asked to keep a record of who has visited their home and when, so that contact tracing can be done more swiftly later if an infection emerges

Retail and hospitality

All retail stores will be allowed to reopen from Wednesday.

Beauty, personal services and tattoo parlours can return as long as customers can wear a mask throughout the procedure.

Restaurants, cafes, bars and pubs will be allowed to seat a maximum of 20 people indoors, provided there are no more than 10 people per space and no more than one person for every 4 square metres.

Outdoors will be restricted to one person per 2 square metres, up to a maximum of 50 patrons.

Groups will be capped at 10 people, seated 1.5 metres from other groups.

Community sport is back for kids and adults

All outdoor sports will return for those aged under 18.

Adults will be allowed to participate in non-contact outdoor sport.

Weddings, funerals and religious gatherings

Weddings will increase to a maximum of 10 people.

Funerals will increase to a maximum of 20 mourners.

Indoor religious gatherings will be capped at 10 people indoors, or 20 people outdoors, plus one faith leader.

Additional changes will be introduced on November 8

We’ve already mentioned some of the changes coming in on November 8, namely that the 25km travel limit for Melburnians will go and the regional-metropolitan border will come down.

November 8 will also be the day Victorians get a sense of what the rest of November, and indeed Christmas, might look like with the Premier set to unveil an updated roadmap.