All travellers to the ACT from Greater Sydney will be forced into a strict two-week home quarantine period after the territory moved to shore up its response against NSW's growing coronavirus outbreak.
Sydney recorded 44 new coronavirus cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Thursday, the worst day of the state's current outbreak. Twenty-nine of the cases were active in the community for some or all of their infectious period.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Friday warned the state's lockdown would likely be extended, and imposed tougher restrictions on residents in affected areas in an effort to reduce the spread of the virulent Delta variant of COVID-19.
Despite the worsening situation in Sydney, face face masks will no longer be required in Canberra from Saturday, with territory health officials confident the risk of community transmission had dropped as the number of people travelling from NSW into the ACT fell.
However, concern has grown that the people who do return from Sydney are more likely to be infectious, given the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19 across Australia's largest city, forcing the ACT to impose stricter conditions on their return.
Anyone who enters the ACT from Greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Central Coast, Wollongong and Shellharbour after 11.59pm on Friday will be required to quarantine for 14 days, unable to leave their homes unless in an emergency or to seek essential medical care.
All travellers from the areas, which the ACT will declare as COVID-19 affected, will need to apply for an exemption to enter the territory. Residents will be automatically granted an exemption but will need to enter quarantine on their return.
"In light of the increased risk posed by the spread of COVID-19 in Greater Sydney, ACT Health will be tightening the requirements for an exemption to be approved. Exemptions will only be approved in highly exceptional circumstances," ACT Health said in a statement.
"Even if an exemption is approved, people receiving an exemption will be required to quarantine. If people do not have suitable premises to quarantine in, they will be required to quarantine in a hotel at their own expense."
ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said home quarantine requirements would allow for greater enforcement.
"Obviously, if someone is required to be at home all the time, the police can go and knock on their door and if they're not there, that's clearly a breach," she said.
Ms Stephen-Smith said it would become harder to get an exemption than it had been in previous weeks.
"Those criteria are going to be applied really strictly considering the circumstances that are in place in Sydney," she said.
Non-ACT residents were banned from entering the territory from Greater Sydney and surrounding areas a fortnight ago.
ACT residents returning to the territory from Greater Sydney are currently required to make a declaration to ACT Health and complete a 14-day period under stay-at-home orders.
The number of Canberrans subjected to stay-at-home orders has fallen dramatically in recent days, as many returned travellers from Greater Sydney completed their 14-day isolation periods.
Ms Stephen-Smith said the ACT would still relax its mask-wearing rules, despite the worsening situation in NSW.
"The thing that's driving the capacity to lift the mask mandate is that reduction in the number of people who are travelling, so that is actually seeing a reduction in the risk of the number of people who could potentially bring the virus into the ACT," she said.
ACT Health said mask wearing would still be encouraged and Canberrans should be prepared for the rules to change at short notice.
"While masks will no longer be mandatory, the government is still encouraging their use in spaces where physical distancing is not possible, such as public transport or crowded venues," ACT Health said.
ACT Chief Minister said earlier this week he was "pleasantly" surprised no cases of coronavirus had been detected in the ACT, despite the high number of people who returned from Greater Sydney.
More than 25,000 people have completed declarations to tell ACT Health they had been in the Greater Sydney or surrounding regions since June 21. The majority of those people were no longer under stay-at-home orders, having returned to the ACT more than 14 days ago.
"That risk period from the Sydney period has now passed [but there] still remains a level of risk," Mr Barr said on Wednesday.
"At this point, we are in a better position than we were two weeks ago in terms of the risk profile."
