National Cabinet has agreed to scrap mandatory isolation periods for people with COVID-19.
The rule will be ditched from October 14.
However, it will remain in place for workers in hospitals, aged care and disability.
Pandemic leave payments will also end on October 14 but will be available for those workers in high-risk settings.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says it was a unanimous decision.
“We have agreed today, based upon the advice, that we are moving beyond the emergency settings that were put in place,” Mr Albanese said.
“It was always envisaged that these measures were emergency measures that were put in place, and what we have done today is take the advice from the Chief Medical Officer, listened to that advice, and, therefore, changed the settings so that they are proportionate.”
Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly warns that the rule change does not mean the end of the pandemic.
“It recognises that we are in a very low community transmission phase of the pandemic here in Australia. It does not in any way suggest that the pandemic is finished,” Professor Kelly said.
“We will almost certainly see future peaks of the virus into the future, as we have seen earlier this year.
“However, at the moment, we have very low rates of both cases, hospitalisations, intensive care admissions, aged-care outbreaks and various other measures that we have been following very closely in our weekly open report.”
