Pubs and restaurants could choose to remain shut even after Canberra's lockdown lifts unless isolation rules for people exposed to coronavirus are relaxed.
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Australian Hotels Association ACT general manager Anthony Brierley has warned venues won't put themselves through the "trauma" of reopening their doors on October 15 if they know that a single infection could shut them down and force staff into a fortnight's quarantine.
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr on Friday confirmed that new contact tracing and isolation requirements were being discussed at a national level, but said the local industry shouldn't expect "radical changes" in time for next month's reopening.
Under the existing system, a person who has prolonged face-to-face contact, or has been in the same enclosed space as a person with the virus is marked as a close contact, meaning they have to immediately isolate for 14 days regardless of the result.
Restaurant, bar and nightclub staff and patrons have been among the thousands of close contacts during Canberra's lockdown.
Causal contacts are deemed to be a lower risk of infection, but are still required to quarantine until they have received either one or two negative tests.
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After the lockdown lifts on October 15 and the nation starts to reopen, ACT authorities expect case numbers to rise as a highly vaccination territory population takes the first steps toward living with the virus.
Mr Brierley said higher numbers of coronavirus cases would increasingly become "part of our life", but that wouldn't be cause for concern because of vaccination rates.
But Mr Brierley said it would be "unworkable" for venues if the quarantine requirements for close and casual contacts weren't relaxed as case numbers rose.
He said it was a more pressing problem for the sector than the density restrictions which venues will be subject to from October 15.
"People are unwilling to go through the trauma of opening up and getting locked down again when they get a case," he said.
"At the moment, if venues wanted to they could reopen with limited trading on the 15th of October. But venues have said they don't want to do that if staff are going to have to isolate.
"It's unworkable."
The NSW government is reportedly considering an overhaul of its contact tracing methods, which would see fully vaccinated people marked as casual contacts even if they had a close interaction with a positive case.
Possible changes to contact tracing and quarantine rules was on the agenda at Friday's national cabinet meeting.
But ahead of the meeting, Mr Barr flagged that it would be months before substantial changes were made.
"I wouldn't be anticipating radical change by the 15th of October, but by December 1 and beyond we may well have transitioned into a different model," he said.
"There's still a lot of policy work, a lot of expert advice to receive, absorb, and then make a decision."
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