On the day that Dominic Perrottet was confirmed as NSW’s latest premier he pledged to stick to the state’s ‘road map to freedom’. However, just one day later on October 7, Perrottet announced a number of “amendments to the roadmap”, softening many of the restrictions once the state begins reopening on October 11.
Indoor pools will be allowed to reopen from October 11, and the number of guests allowed at gatherings at private residences and outdoor gatherings will be increased. Weddings and Funerals, which had been capped at a maximum of 50 guests, will be increased to 100. Schools will be reopened on October 25.
From October 25, masks will not be required in workplaces such as offices, but will still be required at public venues such as restaurants and bars. The capacity of outdoor controlled events will be extended to 3000, but larger venues will be able to apply for a blanket exemption that would allow them to extend capacity up to 5000 attendees. Nightclubs will also be allowed to reopen, although dancing will be prohibited.
Regional workers, outside of the Blue Mountains, Central Coast, Wollongong and Shellharbour will be allowed to return to work once they’ve had a single dose of a vaccine.
A full rundown of the three-phase plan to exit the pandemic by December 1 can be found here.
Notably, the state’s chief health officer was absent from the announcement and no other representatives from NSW Health were present at the 9am press briefing. The new premier insisted that the sweeping changes to the road map were “sensible” and that the state’s health experts had endorsed them.
The state is yet to announce how NSW's vaccination passports will work. Perrottet, who had said in a radio interview on October 5 that he would try to reopen the state from Friday October 8 rather than October 11, said that the reason he had not announced bringing forward NSW's so-called 'freedom day' was that the vaccine passports were not yet ready to launch.