Page 3096 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 9 November 2021
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and dancing will also be permitted. Nightclubs will be able to reopen, in line with density limits.
There will no longer be limits on class sizes for dance schools, gyms and musical rehearsals. Indoor and outdoor entertainment venues, as well as cinemas, can apply 100 per cent of fixed seating capacity. Swimming pools and organised sporting activities will be able to have 25 people across a venue before the density limit of one person per two square metres per usable indoor space, excluding staff, will apply. No more than 2,000 people will be permitted across the whole site, both indoors and outdoors.
Residential aged-care facilities will be permitted to establish their own visitor policies, including to determine whether visitors are required to be vaccinated. Requirements for the construction sector will be eased to request that COVID safety plans are regularly reviewed in line with any guidance issued by ACT Health. Density limits will only apply to indoor spaces at one person per two square metres.
A full outline of the changes will be on the ACT COVID-19 website today. This easing of restrictions is based on the public health advice from the Chief Health Officer, and I will take this opportunity to table her 19th report, from October 2021, on the status of the public health emergency. This report provides a detailed overview of the actions taken by ACT Health during the lockdown to protect the Canberra community, and the evolving epidemiological situation in the ACT and across Australia.
The ACT continues to be well placed in our response to COVID-19, thanks to our incredibly high vaccination rates and the continued management of the outbreak. Canberrans should be proud of their efforts throughout the last few months—and since the start of the pandemic—that have contributed to the reduction in community transmission and the reopening of our city. With borders opening and the summer holiday season fast approaching, it is timely to remind Canberrans to stick with their COVID-safe behaviours and continue to follow the latest public health advice to keep Canberra safe and strong.
The ACT government’s COVID-19 response will continue over the coming months, with a focus on delivering booster vaccinations, and first and second vaccination doses to high-risk cohorts, as well as children and young people once they become eligible. We are also working to establish a longer term, sustainable approach to managing the risk of COVID-19. I look forward to the ACT’s vaccination coverage continuing to increase and all of us getting back to a more normal way of life. I present the following papers:
Status of the Public Health Emergency due to COVID-19—Chief Health Officer Report 19—October 2021, dated 13 October 2021.
Coronavirus (COVID-19)—ACT Government response—Ministerial statement, 9 November 2021.
I move:
That the Assembly take note of the ministerial statement.
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