South Australians will soon be able to stand up and drink in pub beer gardens and dance with their family at weddings under new changes to COVID-19 restrictions.
Following a meeting of the state's transition committee this morning, from midnight tomorrow night, licensed premises with outdoor areas will be allowed to have patrons enjoy "vertical consumption".
Vertical consumption – that is, standing up and drinking – comes after all pub patrons previously had to be seated.
READ MORE: South Australia accepting hundreds more returned travellers as caps rise
The second major change to restrictions, also taking affect at midnight tomorrow, is that private functions will be allowed up to 150 guests as well as dancing and vertical consumption.
This means weddings, funerals, corporate events and business annual general meetings can go ahead as long as they keep a strict guest list and maintain the one person per two-square-metre rule in place for indoor venues.
"The weddings industry in South Australia - we know this is a sector which has been very hard hit with the restrictions that have been in place for an extended period of time," SA's Premier Steven Marshall said.
READ MORE: Joyful reunions as non-quarantined Sydney-Adelaide flight lands
"These restrictions have been extraordinarily important in making sure that we can get through this pandemic as effectively as we can, but we know there's an opportunity to stand up a lot of jobs in this sector if we can get the restrictions right."
South Australia's Police Commissioner Grant Stevens clarified the rule on dancing, as it is obviously near-impossible to dance at a function and maintain proper social distancing.
Guests at pubs who decide to make their own impromptu dance floor will be stopped by police and/or the premises designated COVID marshal.
READ MORE: Flights to SA increased as NSW border lift approaches
"The principle of social distancing is 1.5 metres and we expect that venues will approach that with best practice. We also expect they are complying with the one person per two-square-metre requirement," Mr Stevens said.
"Obviously when you are undertaking some activities that will be hard to do."
To date there are no active cases of COVID-19 in South Australia.
The last new case of the virus detected in South Australia was eight days ago, when the state registered two new cases in returned travellers.
You can get up-to-date information from the Federal Government's Coronavirus Australia app, available on the App Store, Google Play and the Government's WhatsApp channel.
Beyond Blue's Coronavirus Mental Wellbeing Support Service is a 24/7 service free of charge to all Australians. Visit the site here or call 1800512348
For coronavirus breaking news alerts and livestreams straight to your smartphone sign up to the 9News app and set notifications to on at the App Store or Google Play.
from 9News https://ift.tt/3jjQNA6
via IFTTT
0 Comments