News

Northern Territory to reopen to regional Victoria

By Andrew Johnston

Oct 6, 2020

REGIONAL Victoria's slow road to re-opening from the coronavirus lockdown will take a giant step forward on November 2.

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The Northern Territory has announced it will remove travel restrictions for the majority of regional Victoria within a month.

Currently four local government areas - Greater Geelong, the Macedon Ranges and the Mitchell and East Gippsland shires - will remain restricted from entry, though this could change if there are no further cases of community transmission in these areas.

NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner said it was the recommendation of health authorities to revoke regional Victoria's status as a COVID hotspot as the number of cases continued to fall.

The current rolling daily average sits at 0.3 cases per day across the last fortnight.

"The critical factor for making this decision is regional Victoria's success in easing their restrictions without spreading the virus,” Mr Gunner said.

"They are stepping out of lockdown while still staying safe.”

The government said health authorities would continue to monitor the situation in coming weeks as the opening date nears.

It comes as other parts of the country begin discussions to re-open to parts of the state.

NSW and South Australia have conditional border zone entry for regional Victoria, and have both stated a desire to open further to the state in coming weeks.