Students at all Australian National University residential halls will be able to go into bubble arrangements with other college students but will still mostly be confined to their rooms, under new measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Those living onsite at the university's Acton campus will be able to live in bubbles with other residential hall students and share communal kitchen and bathroom facilities, as well as be able to exercise with one other person.
However, students will still be required to stay in their rooms and not leave the residential hall, even for groceries or for essential work.
It comes after Wright Hall residents were ordered back into a second lockdown in less than a week after one of the hall's students was deemed a close contact of a positive case.
Hundreds of residential hall students at eight colleges were previously sent into lockdown on Thursday after about a dozen students were identified as close contacts.
In an email to residents on Tuesday, those living in Wright Hall were told to stay in their rooms and not leave the building for exercise, essential shopping, work or collecting food or parcel deliveries. Meals would be brought up to their rooms.
In an email to students, deputy vice-chancellor Ian Anderson said the new measures for all residential halls, known as "enhanced stay-at-home orders", will be in place until Friday before being reassessed.
"This will help manage the increased risk the current outbreak poses to the residences, and remove the uncertainty of rules in residences changing back and forward as new close contacts emerge," Professor Anderson said.
"These arrangements are less restrictive than the strict rules over the weekend, and more like the arrangements we began testing in some residences [on Monday].
"This way, we can satisfy public health arrangements for dealing with a close contact on an ongoing basis and you won't need to do anything different if there is a close contact in your residence."
The arrangements were developed alongside ACT health officials.
The move followed calls from university officials for a less restrictive isolation model for students.
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But despite the new bubble arrangements, students living in the residential halls have expressed concern, especially as they are unable to leave their accommodation even for essential purposes.
One student at Wright Hall, who declined to be named, said students were anxious and nervous about the living arrangements, in particular being confined to single-bedroom living areas.
"People are pretty despondent at the moment," he said.
"There's a few people who have said they would rather return home to Sydney, because then they would be able to leave their home for essential reasons and exercise."
The student said meetings between residential hall staff, university staff and students have been taking place each night, but there was still uncertainty among the residents.
"The communication from the university has been poor - a lot of it has been unclear and indirect," he said.
"People need to be able to buy food and people don't want to feel like they are trapped in their residences."
