NSW will remove some of the last major pandemic restrictions after close contact rules were scrapped, public health orders requiring key workers to be vaccinated were lifted and an end to hotel quarantine for unvaccinated travellers was announced.
As revealed by the Herald on Tuesday, household contacts of COVID-positive people will no longer need to isolate for seven days but will instead be required to undertake daily rapid antigen testing before coming into contact with anyone outside their household. The removal of close contact rules will come into effect from 6pm on Friday.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet, with Health Minister Brad Hazzard (behind) announces changes to COVID isolation rules on Wednesday.Credit:Rhett Wyman
The country’s chief health officers and state officials last month recommended a “nationally consistent, risk-based transition” to easing rules for close contacts of COVID-19 cases to quarantine, following the peak of the latest Omicron wave driven by the highly transmissible BA.2 variant.
NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said, that while NSW had passed the peak of the latest COVID-19 wave, the “plateau is quite flat, and the decline is quite slow”.
“So it is important [to acknowledge] that we are expecting the levels of transmission in the community to still be maintained at high levels,” Chant said.
Household contacts or people identified as close contacts by NSW Health will no longer have to isolate, and will instead be required to undertake daily rapid antigen tests, wear masks indoors when not at home and will be unable to visit aged care homes, hospitals and other vulnerable settings unless a special exemption applies.
People who test positive to COVID-19 via a PCR test or a RAT will still be required to isolate for seven days.
Public health orders requiring key workers, including aviation, teachers and health staff, to be vaccinated will be lifted but will instead be determined based on individual risk under occupational work health and safety rules.
The state’s remaining quarantine hotel operation will shut on April 30. Unvaccinated international travellers will no longer have to enter hotel quarantine and instead will need to take a RAT within 24 hours of arrival.
Close contact rules, major pandemic restrictions scrapped in NSW
Source: Philippines Alive
