NSW restrictions relaxed: Home visits allowed from Friday

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has announced that people can start visiting family and friends in their homes in her state from Friday.

From May 1, a maximum of two adults will be allowed to visit someone in another home.

“Two adults will be able to go and visit anybody else in their home on the basis of care, on the basis of reducing social isolation and everybody’s mental health,” Ms Berejiklian announced on Tuesday morning.

“We know that for many people, they’ve been cooped up in their homes for a number of weeks, and with the exception of exercising, medical needs or buying what they need to or going to work, many people have been isolated in their homes.

“Obviously, if you’ve got young children, it’s okay to take them with you.

“If you’ve got the mildest sniffle do not go and visit anybody.”

Children will go back to school from May 11 in a staggered face-to-face approach but the government is hoping to see children back full time sooner rather than later.

The Premier is also encouraging people to visit retail stores while maintaining social distancing.

There were five new cases of coronavirus in NSW yesterday from 4000 tests.

There is no date on restriction lifting in Victoria, where Daniel Andrews yesterday announced a bold new testing regime to help steer the state to relaxing the rules.

He wants to conduct 100,000 coronavirus tests between today and May 11, signalling that that’s the date the Victorian government has in mind.

Latest COVID-19 numbers: Andrews announces bold new testing regime