The Northern Territory will be the first jurisdiction to lift major coronavirus restrictions.
From Friday, the territory will allow outdoor weddings and funerals with unlimited guests. Residents will also be able to visit public swimming pools, go fishing with friends and golf.
As of May 15th, pubs, cafes, and restaurants will reopen. As will galleries, museums, gyms and beauty parlours will also open then, however, there will be a restriction on facials until June 5th..
“Today we take our first steps to a recovery,” NT chief minister Michael Gunner told reporters on Thursday.
The eased rules could provide a blueprint for other jurisdictions due to make critical decisions about restarting economic and social activity in the coming weeks.
The two-staged approach to lifting coronavirus restrictions comes as the territory’s active coronavirus cases have diminished to three. Twenty-give people who contracted the virus have recovered, and the last new case was recorded on April 19th.
The Northern Territory will act as a blueprint for the rest of the country and the way that easing restrictions unfolds.
Australia’s death toll sits at 91 following the death of an 86-year-old woman in Tasmania’s north-west. Over 5,600 of the 6,746 people diagnosed with coronavirus nationally have recovered.
This comes after Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that Australia will likely only be able to lift lockdown restrictions of “millions and millions” of people download the COVIDSafe coronavirus tracking app.
