The Operation Corona Virus Commander has issued a warning to NSW residents about holding private gatherings.
All Attendees Can Be Fined
With warmer weather and longer days ahead, amendments have been made to the Public Health Order – most significantly relating to private gatherings; with all attendees now risking $1000 Penalty Infringement Notices (PINs) if the gathering exceeds the allowed 20-person limit.
Where previously, only the organiser of a gathering was liable to receive a fine if the number of people at the premises breached the Public Health Order, every person in attendance will now be held individually responsible for the breach.
The changes, come into effect at midnight tonight (Monday 14 September 2020), with their aim to ensure the safety of the community ahead of an expected increase in gatherings associated with Christmas and end-of-year festivities.
Operation Corona Virus Commander, Assistant Commissioner Tony Crandell, said that as with the previous restrictions, these amendments have been made with community safety in mind.
“Coming into the warmer months, and with end-of-year festivities around the corner, it’s only natural that people will have additional reasons to want to gather and get together,” Assistant Commissioner Crandell said.
“These amendments aim to ensure that an increase in expected gatherings doesn’t mean an increase in COVID-19 cases.
“The new changes come in addition to other restrictions which remain in place, including a limit on numbers at outdoor gatherings and licensed premises.
“NSW Police will continue to work with the community to ensure compliance to all restrictions under the Public Health Order.
“While the vast majority of people within NSW are doing their part, we will continue to target those who don’t,” Assistant Commissioner Crandell said.
What Are the Restrictions on Private Gatherings?
- Up to 20 visitors may visit another household at any one time. The total number of visitors includes adults and children. (A member of the household is not counted as a visitor.)
- There is no daily limit to visitors to your home, so long as you don’t have more than 20 visitors at any one time.
- If you are over 70 or have a pre-existing medical condition, you should limit the number of visitors and take care at all times.
- You can have guests from any household so long as it does not exceed 20 visitors in total.
- An overnight stay as part of a visit to someone’s house is allowed.
From Monday 14 September 2020, if there are more than 20 visitors at a home, every person will be held individually responsible for a breach of the public health order.
As the home is a high transmission area, the NSW Chief Health Officer strongly recommends a COVID-Safe precautionary approach of having no more than 10 visitors at a time.
Strata buildings
Visit NSW Fair Trading for information for people living and working in strata and community schemes.
People who are not counted as visitors
Under the public health orders, some people at your home will not be counted as visitors if they need to be at your home to
- engage in work
- provide a service, care or assistance or for compassionate reasons
- fulfil contact arrangements between parents and children under the age of 18 or between siblings
- help a member of the household to move in or out of the home
- avoid an injury or illness or to escape a risk of harm
- assist in an emergency situation.
Open Houses
A COVID-19 Safety Plan is required by real estate agents to allow people to view or inspect a home to buy or rent it or to attend an auction. People attending a home for this purpose will not be counted as visitors.
Religious gatherings and places of worship
The number of people in a public place of worship must not exceed 100 people, subject to the 4 square metre rule. The maximum applies to the whole of the venue, even where men and women worship in separate areas.
From Monday 14 September, if a place of public worship has separate buildings, each separate building may have a maximum of 100 people in each separate building, subject to the 4 square metre rule and the requirements of the public health order amendment.
The venue must have a COVID-19 safety plan and be registered as a COVID Safe venue to keep staff, volunteers and visitors safe.
The maximum number of people at a religious service wherever held must not exceed 100 people, subject to the 4 square metre rule.
A wedding held in a place of public worship may have up to 150 persons subject to the 4 square metre rule.
Services can be streamed or recorded to enable people to engage in worship.
People attending a religious service will be required to provide their name and contact details when they enter so that they can be used for contact tracing.
Develop a COVID-19 Safety Plan for your church, meeting house, mosque, synagogue, temple or another place of worship to help your community connect safely.
Make A Report
You can report any person failing to follow these rules to Crime Stoppers.
Contact Tracing
The NSW contact tracers are doing a great job at finding contacts of confirmed COVID19 cases. However, any steps that can be taken to make their job easier is a good step.
Lane Cove Council has implemented an easy to use visitor registration app.
The Lane Cove Council has provided to all Lane Cove food establishments a contact free way of recording patron’s details. So it’s now easier for locals to register their visit to local cafes and restaurants.
Lane Cove Council has joined forces with Shiftlineup, a Lane Cove West-based company, to produce an electronic COVID-19 Customer and Visitor Registration System.
Urhere
Over 40 local food businesses are already on board to use urhere which Council has made available to local businesses free of charge.
Unlike many other registration systems, this one verifies the phone number on first-time use by sending a confirmation code, similar to a banking transaction. There’s also the option to remember visitor details on your device which means next time you visit a venue using this same system; you don’t need to re-enter your name and number, it will automatically log this for you when you scan the QR code. Users can also rest assured that information is stored within Australia for 28 days as per the current
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