Premier announces plan to extend state of emergency until December
As Victoria records a 27th consecutive day without a new locally acquired COVID-19 case, Premier Daniel Andrews has announced a plan to extend the state’s state of emergency and the next phase of relaxation of office worker caps.
From midnight Sunday, both public and private sector offices will be able to return to 75 per cent of usual capacity.
Presently, private sector offices are capped at 50 per cent of usual capacity, while public sector offices are at 25 per cent capacity.
Announcing the changes, Mr Andrews stressed that “we can’t go to a situation where there are no rules”.
Mr Andrews also revealed a bill will be put to Parliament today to extend the state of emergency until December 15.
Announcing the plan to extend the state of emergency, the Premier said it’s vital to ensuring Australia can continue to receive returned travellers.
“The sorts of rules that the state of emergency underpins is the order for someone to isolate for 14 days, is the order that hotel quarantine is mandatory, wearing facemasks in certain settings, all of those commonsense things,” he said.
“Without a state of emergency the CHO simply has no power to be able to compel people to isolate in a hotel.
“We wouldn’t want a situation where, because we didn’t have a legal framework, we had to stop receiving returning Aussies wanting to come home.”