Melbourne home visit rules differ from regional Victoria

PEOPLE in metropolitan Melbourne can now have people visit their homes, but the rules differ from regional Victorian home visit regulations.

Yesterday, Victoria recorded zero new cases of COVID-19 and zero deaths for the second straight day but today, two new cases were recorded.

After announcing eased restrictions for metropolitan Melbourne on Monday, Premier Daniel Andrews outlined the rules for home visits which will be in place for the next several weeks.

In Melbourne, two adults and their dependants, all from the same household, will be able to visit a home or be visited in their home once a day, as long as it is within 25 kilometres.

If a household receives visitors, they then cannot visit someone the same day. It also cannot be two adults from different households visiting a third household.

The rules differ from regional Victoria, which allows two people from one or two households and their dependants to visit someone’s home each day.

Regional Victorians are also allowed to visit someone even if they’ve already been visited, differing from Melbourne’s one visit per day rule.

Mr Andrews used his own family as an example to define dependants, with his 13-year-old child being considered a dependant while his 16-year-old would not and his 18-year-old would be considered an adult.

Mr Andrews said the definition of dependant is not limited to children, but anyone that cannot be left alone, including elderly relatives.

Victorians will also be asked to keep a record of who has been in their home and when.

Mr Andrews said the rules were in place because homes were considered one of the most dangerous environments in which the virus could spread.

“It’s not a nice thing for anyone to acknowledge but the place where you feel safest is the place where it is most dangerous for this virus,” he said.

“These rules will not be in place forever but they will be in place for some time.

“You can go down the park with as many households as you like with a max of 10. We’re trying to encourage people to go outside as much as possible with the rules that we’ve written.”

Mr Andrews said masks should be worn where possible during home visits, but acknowledged it would be hard to enforce.

“In terms of how you enforce this, all I can do is appeal to every single Victorian to stay the course on this,” he said.