Melburnians hankering to drive somewhere close to home for their daily allotment of exercise will now be able to do so.
From midnight on Wednesday, August 19, residents of Melbourne will be allowed to drive to a destination to do their daily one hour of exercise, so long as the destination is still within 5km from their home. This minor change to restrictions has been confirmed by a state government spokesperson and the DHHS guidelines are expected to be updated later.
Previously under stage four restrictions, Melburnians could not drive to a destination to exercise, even if the destination was within 5km from their home (an exception was in place for those with mobility issues).
This rule was questioned in premier Dan Andrews' daily Covid-19 press conference on Wednesday morning. 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 happy to look into revising that restriction. Less than 12 hours later the rule was scrapped, in what could be described as some Leslie Knope-level of getting-shit-done.
While Melburnians can now travel to a destination within 5km from their homes to exercise, no other restrictions about exercise under stage four have changed. This means you still can only exercise outside for a maximum of one hour per day, and it must be done by yourself or with one other person. Keep in mind that the time it takes to drive to your destination is included in the one hour limit for exercise.