How Will Victoria’s 'Social Bubbles' Work?

Here are the details for single-person households.

As Victoria finally starts making some headway on slowing the spread of coronavirus, Premier Daniel Andrews has announced that single-person and single-parent households will be the first to receive an ease on their lockdown restrictions.

Currently, Victoria is in Stage 4 lockdown, meaning that since August 2, metropolitan Melbourne residents can only leave the house between 5am and 8pm for work, essential health, care or safety reasons.

Under the current plan to reduce restrictions, from September 14, single-person and single-parent households will be allowed to create their own 'social bubble' with one other person from another household.

If cases continue to decline throughout the state, all Melbourne households will be allowed to create household bubbles from October 26 and regional Victorians in about a month.

What is a social bubble?

Under the new easing of restrictions, individuals living alone or single parents will be able to nominate one other person as a visitor to their home to create a social bubble.

While coronavirus and lockdown restrictions has been hard on everyone, it has definitely taken a toll on those who don’t live with family or flat mates to ease their loneliness.

The Victorian Government says the plan is meant to help those who may have struggled with isolation and Stage 4 restrictions.

The social bubble refers to the smaller social circle of individuals a person can socially interact with to reduce the risk of the spread of coronavirus.

The bubbles look like those of intimate partner arrangements that are currently in place, where people or parents who live alone will be able to partner up with another person allowing visitation between both parties.

While this is great for people who are stuck inside alone, there are rules that apply.

Who can visit my home?

You may be wondering who you’re allowed to nominate and when they are allowed to visit, so we’ve broken it down:

The basic details for the new plan are pretty simple, you can nominate anyone of your choosing, and they do not also have to be from a single-person household or a single-parent.

Unfortunately, you may only nominate one person and once you have selected someone, that person must remain the same.

Either party may visit at each other’s homes, however, if your nominated person lives with other adults, you can only visit them when they are home alone.

Residents may also stay overnight with their nominated individual although either party must travel between homes before the curfew.

The person you might nominate to visit may live outside your 5-kilometer radius, but nightly curfews still apply.

While you can travel outside your 5-kilometer radius, social bubbles are restricted to regional Victoria or metropolitan Melbourne, not between them.

Although the allowance is extended to single parents, those living with a child above the age of 18 are unfortunately not included.

What are household bubbles?

If all goes well, from October 26 Victoria will be allowed to extend its social groups to 'household bubbles'.

Much like social bubbles, household bubbles are a small social circle of individuals a household can socially interact with to reduce the risk of the spread of coronavirus. This however is extended to five individuals between two households.

In this case, you will only be allowed five people to visit regardless of the number of individuals in your family or your nominated household.

When these changes apply, travel restrictions will also have lifted so households do not need to worry about the 5-kilometer radius rule.

Regional Victorians may be lucky enough to access household bubbles before metropolitan Melbourne, once regional areas reach an average of five or fever new cases of coronavirus over 14 days.

How will it work?

While there is all this talk about 'nominating' an individual to create a social bubble with, there isn’t actually any formal nomination process. You can just decide.

Premier Andrews has admitted that there would be no official record of the bubbles and that the new rules would be difficult to police.

Essentially, the Victorian government is just putting their trust in Victorians in the hope that they follow the rules and stay safe.

If you are in lockdown in Victoria right now, it’s important to continue to comply with social and physical restrictions not only to protect yourself and others, but also to avoid a hefty fine.

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