Victoria's Premier Daniel Andrews says Christmas is going to look different this year.
The state's track record of 23 consecutive days without any new coronavirus cases, means the limit on the number of people in homes will be increased from two to 15 from Monday, 23rd November.
And that number will be increased again to 30 - just in time for the holidays.
That is not 30 for lunch and 30 for dinner, it is 30 across the course of the day. Now I know that will be a large enough number for some families, and for others they will need to do some juggling. But from December 13, that is very important, for a number of different multi-faith communities. It is also very important to acknowledge that Christmas and those end of year family get-togethers and functions are not just for Christmas Day, they are in that latter part of the year. So that is a big step forward.
This week outdoor gatherings can include up to 50 people.
The compulsory face mask-wearing rule will also be relaxed.
Face coverings will still need to be worn indoors and during crowded settings outside.
Meantime, the New South Wales-Victorian border re-opened at midnight of 22nd November.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian says the border operation has cost millions of dollars, and she is glad it is no longer needed.
She urged Queensland to follow suit and open its border with New South Wales.
NSW has reached 15 consecutive days without any cases of locally acquired COVID-19 cases. Eleven cases of infected travellers in hotel quarantine have been recorded.
Meanwhile, the premier also called on other states to open up more hotel quarantine places for Australians returning home from overseas.
She says that will allow New South Wales to make available about 1,000 spots a week in hotel quarantine for international students and skilled migrants, from January 2021.
New South Wales welcomes back every week more Australians than all the other states combined. So, all I'm suggesting is next year, after Christmas and New Year’s, let's consider, given Victoria well come back on board, given the other states have said they will take on more. Let's consider having a proportion out of the 3,000 [weekly cap of overseas arrivals] to international students. Because a lot of our universities will have to axe jobs if we don't. Especially regional universities, I don't want to see that happen.
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