Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has announced all retail and hospitality businesses in Melbourne can reopen within days, after the state recorded no new coronavirus cases and deaths for the first time in more than four months.
When restrictions lift at 11.59pm on Tuesday, Melbourne restaurants, hotels, cafes and bars will be able to host up to 50 patrons outdoors and an additional 20 inside – subject to social distancing requirements.
“Relief is the best description of the easing restrictions on metropolitan Melbourne and particularly welcome after the weekend delay and disappointment,” Tim Piper, Victorian Head of the national employer association Ai Group said today.
“Businesses will be celebrating being in a position to serve the public, manufacture the product and re-energise the economy.”
“It’s a vital day for Metropolitan Melbourne, the state and even the rest of the nation as Melbourne returns to a semblance of normality.”
However, not everyone has responded as positively to the eased restrictions, with leaders in the Melbourne small business sector requesting more freedoms.
“The density quotas will need to be eased as quickly as possible in order to make it financially viable,” said Mr Justin O’Donnell, Chairperson of the Chapel Street Precinct. “It’s a pipedream to think that many of our businesses can simply move to outdoor trading.
“Many have limited outdoor space, yet they can make it abundantly safe indoors with exceptional COVID-19 safety measures. Our government needs to understand the urgent need for businesses to start climbing their way out of the debt burden that is building daily before it’s simply too late.”
Gyms and fitness venues will reopen in Melbourne on 8 November, slightly after hospitality and retail. They will be subject to a one-person per eight square metre rule.
The Director of Vision Personal Training Prahan Nathan Weidemann has said that the health and fitness sector is among the hardest hit by the coronavirus, and should be able to open earlier.
“We find it extraordinary that you will be able to go for a Parma ‘n’ Pot before you can step foot inside a health and fitness facility,” he said. “With swipe cards and booking systems already in place at gyms, along with cleaning protocols already standardised, the fitness sector is and has always been prepared.
“This is totally unjustifiable and needs to be fixed now.”
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