The Prime Minister has provided an update on the sequence of events that will enable Australia to ease COVID-19 pandemic control measures. However, each state will decide when these steps are to begin and the pace of change.
Step 1 of the COVID-19 Response Plan
The first step will enable restaurants, cafes, shops, libraries, community centres, playgrounds and boot camps reopen and local and regional travel to resume. You will be allowed to have up to five visitors at home and to be in groups of 10 outdoors, which includes community sport.
For riders this is excellent news. Smaller group rides and cycling to a café with friends will be back on the agenda. It won’t be total ‘business as usual’- physical distancing requirements may mean customer limits need to be imposed, and we will all need to keep washing our hands, stay home if sick and go for testing if we have symptoms.
Step 2 of the COVID-19 Response Plan
The second stage will see groups of 20 people allowed in places like gyms, beauty therapists, cinemas and galleries. Some states may allow larger groups, based on their circumstances. At this point interstate travel will be allowed and community sport will be able to return in groups of 20. Great news for participants in larger group rides, or who wanted to head to a rail trail.
Step 3 of the COVID-19 Response Plan
The final step will see people return to work and gatherings of up to 100 people allowed and pubs to reopen. At this point, sport competition should be able to resume under the AIS framework, but the details are still being finalised. It is unclear when large scale events with thousands of participants will be able to resume.
The National Cabinet will review the progress of each step every three weeks, and progress to the next step will depend on the impact the changes have had on coronavirus infection numbers.
“This doesn’t give us a start date yet for NSW, or a precise timeline, but it does provide us with a roadmap,” said Bicycle NSW General Manager of Public Affairs, Bastien Wallace.
“We have been pleased to see the efforts, and hear from so many members doing their best to comply with infection control measures. Your hard work has really helped, thank you,” said Bastien.
Bicycle NSW is pleased to see the government responding to calls for more space to ride as a response to COVID-19 and the bike riding boom. We hope more riders will see governments shift to deliver faster infrastructure improvements for bike riding in NSW.
