NSW Is Further Easing Gathering and Small Venue Capacity Limits From December 1

While New South Wales started moving out of lockdown a few months back, life definitely hasn't returned to pre-COVID-19 normality just yet. Slowly, however, more and more restrictions are continuing to relax — including, as just announced today, Wednesday, November 25, caps on the number of people you can have over to your house, and also on how many folks can head to small hospitality venues.

As revealed by NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, from Tuesday, December 1 at-home gathering limits will lift — to 50 if you're using your outdoor space, and to 30 if you'll be indoors without access to a garden or backyard. Obviously, the timing is geared towards the holiday season. The 50-person rule will be mandated by a health order, but the 30-person cap will be a strong recommendation.

If you're having an outdoor gathering elsewhere, such as a picnic or park barbecue, those limits are going up to 50 from 30 as well — to match the at-home outdoor cap.

Out of the house, venues with up to 200 square metres of space will be able to welcome in more customers, with a one-person-per-two-square-metres limit in place. There won't be a cap on the total number of patrons, either — just the density restriction.

Commenting on the announcement, Premier Berejiklian said that more changes are set to come depending on the health advice, including applying consistent density and capacity restrictions across the hospitality sector. "[NSW] Health is looking very closely at being able to apply that two-square-metre rule indoors across all hospitality venues," she advised. It's hoped that that'll be able to happen prior to Christmas but, again, that's dependent upon health advice.

As of the past Monday, November 23, all NSW hospitality venues are required to use QR codes for contact-tracing purposes, which will also play a big part when density and capacity restrictions are standardised across the entire industry.

Cassandra Hannagan

The other big change won't come into effect until Monday, December 14, and it applies to working from home. The NSW Government will remove the public health order that covers the topic, so you can expect more people returning to the office. In line with that shift, NSW residents are also asked to wear masks on public transport as there'll be more people using the network.

As always, the usual rules regarding hygiene, social distancing and getting tested if you display any possible COVID-19 symptoms all still apply as restrictions keep easing.

For more information about the status of COVID-19 in NSW, head to the NSW Health website.

To find out more about the status of COVID-19 in Australia and how to protect yourself, head to the Australian Government Department of Health's website.

Top image: Kitti Gould.