Recent and upcoming changes - October 2020
News and announcements
- 2 October: NSW-Victoria border – changes to boarding school student permits
- 2 October: Travel restrictions lifted for Lord Howe Island
- 24 September: School, sport and music restrictions relaxed
See more COVID-19 news and media releases.
Capacity increase for entertainment venues
From Monday 28 September 2020, theatres, cinemas and concert halls across NSW will be able to increase capacity up to 50%, to a maximum of 1000. These venues also have the option of continuing to calculate capacity based on the 4 square metre rule, if that better suits their operational model.
Visitors at home
If there are more than 20 visitors at a home at any one time, every person will be held individually responsible for a breach of the public health order.
Weddings
Venues can take bookings for weddings and other events to be held in the future for more people than allowed under current rules, as long as the rules that apply when the event is held are obeyed.
Up to 150 people are allowed to attend a wedding service, including at a place of public worship.
Up to 20 people in the official wedding party are permitted on the dance floor. Only these 20 people can be on the dance floor at any one time. There can be no rotation of different people.
Churches and places of public worship
If a place of public worship has multiple buildings at a single location:
- each building can have as many people as allowed under the 4 square metre rule, up to a maximum of 100 people or 150 people for a wedding
- each building must be designated as a separate area with its own separate external entry and exit, its own COVID-19 Safety Plan and staff and attendees should not mix across services.
Auctions and open house viewings
People attending an on-site auction or viewing a home to lease or buy the property are exempt from the 20 visitor rule and will not be counted as visitors.
Real estate agents must have a COVID-19 Safety Plan in place for viewings or inspections of on-site open homes and for public auctions. They do not need a separate plan for each individual inspection or auction.
Visitors allowed at a residence and outdoor gatherings - October 2020
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.
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.
