On June 1, life is going to look a lot different for Sydneysiders. Restaurants, cafes and pubs will be allowed to have up to 50 customers and regional travel will be back on the cards, as will visiting cultural institutions and beauty salons.
In an announcement yesterday, Sunday, May 25, that NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard called "a big day for everyone in our community", Hazzard said that nail, waxing and tanning salons will be allowed to reopen from the first of next month.
"Of all of the requests I've had as Health Minister in the last three months, this has been the one that I think has topped the barrel," Hazzard said. "I've even had text messages in the middle of the other meetings, telling me how bad acrylic nails were."
Like all venues allowed to reopen, beauty salons must follow social distancing measures — with one person per four square metres — and have a COVID-safe plan in place before reopening.
Taronga Zoo
In a separate announcement yesterday, NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet confirmed that the state's zoos, reptile parks would also be allowed to reopen from June 1. Once again, the venues will need to comply with the one person per four-square-metres rule, and Perrottet is urging Sydneysiders to pre-purchase tickets or give the animal-filled spots a call before heading in.
"With the June long weekend and school holidays not far away we want to ensure they take appropriate measures to make this a success," Perrottet said. "For example, that might be only doing online tickets to control visitor numbers on busy days."
For more information about the status of COVID-19 in NSW, head to the NSW Health website.