As states slowly ease coronavirus restrictions, the New South Wales Department of Health has defended what appear to be inconsistent rules over the number of people allowed to gather in different situations.
As of Monday 1 June, in NSW, up to 50 people can dine-in at cafes, bistros and restaurants, space permitting. However, the number of guests allowed in a home remains unchanged at five.
Up to 50 guests can attend a funeral, but only 20 can go to a wedding. Schools may be back in session, but children can’t attend swimming lessons if they are held in an indoor pool. On the other hand, up to 10 people can swim in an outdoor pool, as long as there is one swimmer per lane.
Since the start of the pandemic, federal and state governments have been accused of providing inconsistent restrictions and conflicting advice.
While these new rules may seem contradictory, health experts say they are based on two considerations: how easy it is to enforce social distancing in certain situations, and how culture and behaviour in different settings can spread the virus faster.
It is much easier for authorities to ensure people keep their distance at a cafe as opposed to in a private residence, a NSW Health spokesperson told Guardian Australia.
“Cafes, restaurants and pubs will, under the public health order, be subject to inspection and enforcement, this is not practical for each and every home.”
The spokesperson also noted that only 10 people were allowed to sit together at a pub or restaurant, “similar to a gathering in a public space, or if a household of five have their permitted five visitors”.
Dr Marylouise McLaws, a professor of epidemiology at the University of NSW who also sits on the WHO’s health emergencies program experts advisory panel for Covid-19, said that the way people behaved at home was different to in a restaurant or pub.
“From an outbreak management perspective, if we say you can have as many people to your home as you have space for, there is concern that you might have large barbeque parties where people aren’t keeping their distance,” she said.
“If you are at home, you might forget about social distancing and everyone might crowd in your kitchen while you are cooking. Five people at home can mostly keep their distance.”
When it comes to weddings versus funerals, the spokesperson for NSW Health said they saw significant clusters of coronavirus spread at weddings before restrictions first came into effect.
McLaws said the typical behaviour and rituals at weddings probably accounted for this.
“At a funeral, there is no dancing and there is no sitting down for a prolonged period of time eating and listening to speeches and becoming distracted from the importance of keeping distance. At a funeral, it’s a very quiet and sombre occasion, and … there also is probably not as much alcohol that can stop you from being compliant with the rules,” she said.
But McLaws said that there should still be a difference in the number of people allowed to attend outdoor funerals, compared to those held indoors.
“In certain religions and cultures, you have the funeral at the gravesite, which means you can probably have more people standing around keeping distance.”
One anomaly in the NSW restrictions that McLaws could not account for was a variation between swimming in outdoor as opposed to indoor pools. If anything, she said, Sars research showed that the virus’ survival dropped in higher temperatures and humidity, making the rate of transmission at indoor heated pools potentially lower.
According to Swimming Australia’s national guidelines for reopening clubs after the lockdown, “there is no good data on risks of indoor sporting activity, but that this time, the risk is assumed to be greater than for outdoor sporting activity, even with similar mitigation steps taken”.
Indeed, the spokesperson for NSW Health said “it is more difficult to maintain physical distancing at indoor exercise facilities than in outdoor spaces”.
While you could argue that there isn’t much difference between allowing children to mingle in a classroom and an indoor swimming pool, McLaws explained that decision-makers were probably more worried about parents’ behaviour.
“If children go, parents go, and parents are the drivers of Covid-19,” McLaws said.
“We don’t want parents congregating at school sports [or swimming centres] until we have the numbers down a bit further. I live close to a school and I see how parents congregate [after dropping their kids off] and they don’t leave and go. They keep chatting to each other and keep close and shake hands, and it is as if things are back to normal.”
The NSW deputy premier, John Barilaro, announced on Tuesday 2 June that indoor swimming pools and saunas would reopen on 13 June “with some level of restrictions”. The Guardian has sought clarification about these restrictions from NSW Health.
