Melburnians who hanker to drive near home for their regular exercise allowance will now be able to do so.
From midnight on Wednesday, August 19, Melbourne residents will be allowed to drive to a destination to do their daily one-hour workout, as long as the destination is still within 5 km of their home. A spokesperson for the state government has confirmed this minor change to restrictions, and the DHHS guidelines are expected to be updated later.
Melburnians previously could not drive to a destination for exercise under stage four restrictions, even if the destination was within 5 km from their home.
This law was challenged in the Wednesday morning press conference of Premier Dan Andrews’ daily Covid-19. Victorian Chief Health Officer, Brett Sutton, said that “we are aware that people have talked about that as an unreasonable constraint” and that he was pleased to revisit the ban.
The rule was repealed less than 12 hours late, in what could be described as some get-shit-done Leslie Knope-levels.
While Melburnians can now travel to a destination for exercise within 5 km from their homes, no other restrictions on exercise have changed under stage four.
This means that you can still only exercise outside for a maximum of one hour per day, and this must be done by yourself or with someone else.
Bear in mind that the one hour period for the exercise covers the time it takes to travel to your destination.