Update for Regional Artists and Arts Organisations in Response to Covid-19

25 February 2022

Relaxing restrictions

From 11:59pm on Friday 25 February 2022:

The public health recommendation for Victorians to work or study from home will be removed.

Masks will only be required indoors in the following circumstances, unless an exemption applies:

• people on public transport, in taxis and rideshare, on planes, and indoors at an airport
• people working or visiting hospitals, and indoor areas at care facilities
• workers in hospitality, retail and the court system
• workers at justice and correctional facilities
• students in year 3 or above at primary school, and workers at early childhood centres and primary schools (masks can be removed in secondary school)
• people working indoors at an event with more than 30,000 people attending
• in special circumstances, such as if you have COVID-19 or are a close contact and you're leaving home.

Some vaccination requirements have also slightly changed as follows:

• Fully vaccinated workers who aren't yet eligible for a third dose will have a third dose deadline of three months and two weeks from when they had their second dose.
• Workers who are recent international arrivals will have a new third dose deadline of four weeks from the date of their arrival, provided they have evidence of a future vaccine booking.
• Workers whose temporary medical exemption has expired (for example, because they had COVID-19) will have a new third dose deadline of two weeks following the expiry of the medical exemption.

You can read the announcement in full here: https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/safe-and-sensible-return-office-mask-rules-ease

Further information will be available online from Friday at: https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/

Business stimulus package

You may have seen the announcement of a $200m business stimulus package from the Victorian Government

The program includes:

• State-wide dining vouchers
• Entertainment vouchers
• Travel vouchers
• A ventilation voucher program
• Small business digital adaption program
• Business recovery and resilience mentoring program

You can read more about each of these elements, including their respective opening dates, at: https://www.vic.gov.au/business-stimulus-package

17 January 2022

Current settings

Indoor dancefloors within hospitality and entertainment venues must close from 11:59pm 12 January 2022 (last Friday)

Venues can still operate and there are no changes to the density settings currently in place. These in summary are:

• A density quotient of one person per two square metres apply to all food and drink facilities within arts and live performance facilities: https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/arts-and-live-performances-sector-guidance)
• For animal facilities, arcade, escape rooms, bingo centres, and amusement parks, casinos, electronic gaming machine premises, karaoke and nightclubs, a density quotient of one person per two square metres for indoors spaces applies, except for animal facilities: https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/attractions-and-entertainment-sector-guidance
• Additional information on events is available here: https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/business-events-information-organisers
• Information on the latest settings is available at: https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/how-we-work-current-restrictions#current-covidsafe-settings

Multi-year Victorian Government funding announced

• Congratulations to the regional recipients of the last Victorian government multi-year funding programs, including those for the newly created Creative Ventures Program, namely FLOAT INCORPORATED, Find Your Voice Collective, and Hatch And Make: https://creative.vic.gov.au/news/2022/multi-year-support-backs-victorias-creative-future 

7 January 2022

Changes from 11.59pm Thursday January 6

Density quotients of one person per two square metres will now be required indoors at: 

• hospitality venues, including restaurants, cafés, pubs and nightclubs. 
• entertainment venues, including arcades and amusement parks, casinos and gaming venues.
• it is also recommended that entertainment and hospitality venues and their patrons opt for seated service only and avoid indoor dancefloors.
• It is strongly recommended to work from home and study from home for adult education if you can.

These measures will be assessed again on 26 January.

You can read the Statement in full here: https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/sensible-steps-reduce-testing-queues-and-transmission

Additional information is available at: https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/