December 15, 2021 | By Bronwen Largier
Unvaccinated people have come out of lockdown in NSW from midnight last night, as the state’s final announced stage – to date – of its reopening roadmap came into play.
Alongside removing the distinction between the vaccinated and unvaccinated in almost every setting, apart from indoor music festivals of over 1,000 people and boat cruises of over 100, the one-per-two-square-metres density limit has been scrapped in all settings and mask wearing has been reduced to only a handful of circumstances.
Music festivals have also been allowed to restart with a limit of 20,000 attendees.
Last night, the NSW Government also announced it was removing its 14-day hotel quarantine requirement for those arriving from southern African countries first impacted by the Omicron variant. Those arriving after 6am this morning no longer need to enter hotel quarantine, but the order for all international arrivals to self-isolate for the first 72 hours following their arrival in Australia still stands.
NSW is currently experiencing a major uptick in COVID-19 infections, which NSW Health has attributed to the new Omicron variant.
Meanwhile down south, Tasmania has reopened its state border today to all of Australia, including hotspot areas for quarantine-free entry for fully vaccinated travellers.
For those coming from high risk areas of Australia – currently all of the ACT, and parts of Victoria and NSW – a negative PCR test is required, taken within 72 hours of travelling into Tasmania. All travellers to Tasmania also need to register their travel beforehand.
From December 6, Tasmania has also required proof of vaccination for entry into free-mixing events such as music festivals and all events with over 250 attendees indoors or 500 outdoors which are permitted to serve alcohol. From today staff working in these settings must also be vaccinated.