New South Wales is relaxing its COVID rules for fully vaccinated individuals after Premier Gladys Berejiklian promised they would when the area reached 6 million vaccinations.
Earlier this month Australian military personnel were sent into Sydney to enforce restrictions in the city as the state went into lockdown.
A stay at home order was put into place and citizens were only allowed to shop for essentials, get medical care, exercise outdoors with one other person, and go to work if they couldn’t work from home.
Lockdown measures were set to end late August but were extended into September.
Small groups of fully vaccinated people can meet outdoors but local government areas are a little more restricted.
There are 12 LGAs marked as areas of concern and they face extra restrictions, including a curfew and limits on outdoor exercise.
Starting September 13, people in these areas will be allowed to leave home for one hour of recreation everyday on top of their hour for exercise. Berejiklian said, “In a couple of weeks in the local government areas of concern, families, a household, will now be able to go out for an hour of recreation on top of the hour of exercise”.
A household that wants to partake in the recreational hour must have all adults vaccinated with proof. “That is the key, as long as the adults in that family are all vaccinated, and can demonstrate proof of their vaccination”, Berejiklian added.
Recreation time must occur between 5am and 9pm and has to take place within 5km of a person’s house. Different households are not allowed to mix during this time.
For people that live outside of an LGA, gatherings outdoors with up to five people can occur without time restrictions. These gatherings must still be in a person’s LGA or within 5km of their home.