SMH APRIL 9, 2020
Can we have people over? Can we go away at Easter? Can we babysit?
By Sherryn Groch, Stuart Layt, Michael Evans, Hannah Barry, Tammy Mills and Felicity Lewis
uests are pinged for being at a dinner party. Five young people in a car are fined for driving around aimlessly together. Three friends are fined for playing video games together in a loungeroom. All had breached laws aimed at slowing the spread of coronavirus.
In our new reality during the COVID-19 pandemic, no matter where you live in Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has advised there are really only four acceptable reasons to go out:
- Shopping for food or supplies to help keep you at home, including going to the petrol station, ATM or other essential services
- Getting medical care or for compassionate or emergency reasons such as caring for someone, dropping off supplies, visiting a sick relative in hospital, taking an animal to the vet or if you are fleeing danger
- Exercising outside, including dog walking
- Attending work or school if you cannot do them from home, and attending childcare.
Bottom line: “Only leave for what you need + exercise, work, medical and care,” as federal government text messages are saying.
Sound a bit full-on? So are the potential consequences of getting COVID-19. The idea of these rules is to stem the spread of the highly contagious virus by limiting contact with others, thereby flattening the rate of infections and ensuring our hospitals are not overwhelmed.
So far, Australians have been doing a good job of following the rules. The number of new infections recorded every day is falling. But our medical experts have warned now is “not the time to take the foot off the brake” – complacency could see Australia lose its window to contain the outbreak, and cases rapidly explode again.
As questions from you flood into police, governments – and our newsrooms – about what will and won’t get you fined on the spot, we’ve scoured guidelines and public comments from leaders, and put your questions to governments and the police. Here is what we know so far.
Can I have people over to my home or visit others?
In all states, you can still visit someone in an emergency or to provide care – or even drop off supplies. But when it comes to social visits to households, it’s the unnecessary guests that are now advised against, even if you live alone. Spending time together inside a house, as opposed to on a walk outside (1.5 metres apart), gives the virus more opportunities to spread in bathrooms and kitchens.
In NSW, the position is similar. There are 16 excuses for leaving your home but none of them involve dinner parties, barbecues or beers with mates (see the list below)
Here’s something else to bear in mind when deciding what to do: people over 70 and people with a chronic illness, including common conditions such as high blood pressure, are particularly susceptible to complications, even death, from the virus. Every visit brings with it the chance of infection, and some carriers are asymptomatic too – you may not know you are carrying the virus.
What is a reasonable excuse to be out of your home in NSW?
- Buying food or other goods or services for the personal needs of the household or other household purposes (including pets) and for vulnerable people
- Travelling to work if you can’t work from home
- Travelling to childcare (including picking up or dropping another person at childcare)
- School or uni drop-offs if the student can’t learn from home (this includes taking an L-plater out driving in NSW)
- Exercising (more on that below)
- Obtaining medical care or supplies or health supplies or fulfilling carer’s responsibilities
- Attending a wedding or a funeral in approved circumstances
- Moving to a new home (including a business moving to new premises) or between your different homes, or inspecting a potential new home.
- Providing care or assistance (including personal care) to a vulnerable person or providing emergency assistance
- Donating blood
- Undertaking any legal obligations (including attending court or fulfilling bail requirements)
- Accessing public services (whether provided by government, a private provider or a non-government organisation) including social services, employment services, domestic violence services mental health services, and services provided to victims (including as victims of crime)
- For children who do not live in the same household as their parents or siblings, or one of their parents or siblings – continuing existing arrangements for access to, and contact between, parents and children or siblings
- For a priest, minister of religion or member of a religious order – going to a person’s place of worship or providing pastoral care to another person
- Avoiding injury or illness or to escape a risk of harm
- For emergencies or compassionate reasons
What about visiting my lover if we don’t live together?
This was briefly a vexed issue in Victoria and NSW because social visits are otherwise banned. Victoria quickly backed down on its “bonk ban”, after advising on April 1 that people should not visit or be intimate with partners they didn’t live with. Within hours, it had made a specific exemption for romantic couples.
NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller came to the same conclusion by a different route: he said visiting a partner fell under the category of “care”, which is one of the 16 reasonable excuses (listed above) for not staying home. “Mental health,” he said, “we get it … we need to look after each other – but don’t take the whole family with you.” In the other states and territories, visitors can include partners.
Can I still have people over to babysit?
While child custody arrangements remain unaffected by the restrictions, the rules around babysitting are less clear – although it appears to fall under either care or work in most states. In NSW, the government has yet to clarify this.
What about cleaners and tradies?
Yes, but only if it’s essential (this is no time for a backyard blitz) and while keeping your distance. In NSW, as we’ve seen above, cleaning will fall under caring when it’s for someone vulnerable. In Victoria, if you are unwell, disabled, elderly or pregnant you can have a service provider or tradie over “if you really need help”. “For example,” the government advice says, “your Wi-Fi might be faulty and you need it to work from home. Or, you might have a leaking pipe causing damage. A tradesperson is permitted to enter your home to fix the problem, but you must ensure physical distancing while they are there.” Similarly, house cleaners are framed in the guidelines as being for those who need help, physically. If you’re helping an elderly friend or relative who lives alone with cleaning and housework, the government advises, think about having them sit somewhere comfortable and away from you while you work. For the rest of us, it might be time to dust off the feather duster.
What about exercise outdoors?
As the Prime Minister has said, exercise is one of the four acceptable reasons to be out of your home. Exercise can be with one other person so long as you keep 1.5 metres distance from one another.
While group boot camps are out, you can walk, jog, cycle or do push-ups with your household or someone external, including a personal trainer, as long as it’s just the two of you. You could even grab a takeaway coffee but, as NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has urged, keep moving – the aim is to avoid people clustering together, and NSW Police have stressed that people hanging about will attract their attraction.
How far can you drive for, say, exercise?
If you keep the word “essential” in mind, then rambling Sunday drives or road trips where you pop out of the car right at the end to stretch your legs are not on right now. In fact, NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller has told ABC Radio the Easter long weekend is not an excuse for people to travel just anywhere and people should not be going for a drive – even if they have no intention of getting out of the car.
Can I still take my son (who lives with me and is a learner driver) out for driving practice?
That depends on where you live. NSW Police have issued a statement saying learning to drive with a household member is considered a reasonable excuse to leave home “given that this is a learning activity that cannot be done from home and is akin to the listed reasonable excuse of travelling to attend an educational institution where you cannot learn from home”.
Can I move house?
Yes if you have to. You can even have removalists but you must adhere to physical distancing rules.
Can I go fishing, take the boat out or play golf?
In NSW, hunting is suspended but fishing is OK – the Department of Primary Industries characterises it as exercise. Golf is fine, too. (Golf courses were initially closed on advice of the federal government but, after reconsideration, the NSW Office of Sport deemed golf an activity that can be played in line with Public Health Orders.) And so is boating. A “reasonable excuse” to use your boat could be to exercise (for example, kayaking, sailing, paddling); fish; get to and from work when you can’t work from home; get groceries; and provide help or care to an immediate member of the person’s family. Again, social distancing rules always apply – at the boat ramp and on your boat. You should be in your boat alone or with just one other person; or with family who ordinarily live in the same household as you.
If I’m over 70, can I go to the bank or get my hair done?
You can do these things, if it’s essential or for compassionate reasons (say, you physically cannot wash and style your own hair) but governments strongly urge people aged 70 or over, or 60 with chronic medical conditions, to avoid contact because they are at higher risk of complications or death from COVID-19.
So, while banks and hairdressers are deemed essential services and remain open, it’s better if you speak to your bank over the telephone and see how they can assist you; or potentially request that a hairdresser visit you at home; or find a relative, carer or support person who can help you. Now is the time to prevail on others.
You can phone the Coronavirus Hotline on 1800 675 398 for more information. Victoria’s Council on the Ageing has a phone hotline from 9.30am until 4pm on 1300 135 090. In Queensland, the Community Recovery Hotline, a free call on 1800 173 349, will link seniors and other vulnerable Queenslanders to essential services and support.
If you want to talk through how you are feeling and gain advice and support to suit your circumstances, phone Beyond Blue’s new Coronavirus Mental Wellbeing Service on 1800 512 348.