Most of the remaining COVID-19 safety rules in Canberra have been removed as the ACT's two-and-a-half-year public health emergency ends.
As of this morning, Canberrans no longer need to wear face masks on public transport or when using shared transport such as taxis.
Household contacts of infected people no longer need to report their status to ACT Health, and businesses and organisations do not need to have COVID-19 safety plans when they host events.
Vaccine mandates have also ended for staff in aged care and disability care workplaces.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr praised the community for its response to the pandemic, and for complying with health orders since the outbreak hit the ACT in March 2020.
He said the emergency declaration would now be replaced with a simpler "management declaration".
"There will need to be ongoing support for Canberrans who are most vulnerable to COVID-19, and a mechanism that allows the government to swiftly implement the public health measures that have proven to be highly successful in suppressing the virus in the territory," he said.
Testing centre hours to change
Canberra's COVID-19 testing centres will begin to wind back as the government encourages people to rely instead on home-testing kits.
The clinic at Kambah in Canberra's south will close permanently at 4pm Friday, and other facilities' operating hours will be reduced from tomorrow.
The Garran clinic will operate from 10am to 6:30pm, Mitchell's drive-through centre will open from 8am to 2pm, and the walk-in clinic at Holt will open from 8am to 4pm.
Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said PCR (laboratory-grade) tests would now be prioritised for those most at risk of severe illness, such as the elderly and people with a health vulnerability.
But she said Canberrans still needed to report a positive rapid antigen test (RAT) result, and stay in isolation for five days after a positive result.
Those orders will remain in place until October 14, though National Cabinet agreed Friday to remove isolation rules from that date.
"We're maintaining the supports that are in place for people to do that," Ms Stephen-Smith told ABC radio.
"And we're also maintaining the rules around day six and seven … in terms of wearing a mask [and] not entering a high-risk facility."
The minister also said she believed many Canberrans were no longer testing themselves when they developed mild symptoms, and epidemiologists believed that only half of the active cases in the ACT were being detected.
"There are going to be lots of people who have very mild symptoms or no symptoms at all, that really don't think that they've got COVID-19 and aren't even bothering to do a test," she said.
"There may be some people who are quite deliberately not testing even though they think they might have COVID-10.
"I suspect in the ACT that's a small number of people."
