As it happened: Home visits for Victorians allowed as zero cases recorded again; two new cases in NSW; NSW free to travel to Tasmania without quarantine; Australian death toll stands at 905

"Not to mention the personal circumstances; we've had a mortgage deferred for several months now as well, so there's a whole raft of things that makes the whole picture really, really complex."

From midnight on Tuesday, Melbourne's hospitality sector reopens with strict density rules.

For some venue operators, those rules will be too much. It will simply not be financially viable for them to open with reduced patron numbers.

Mr Salt's CBD institution Section 8 will reopen, albeit in a very different form. Drinks staff will be retrained to serve food and wait on customers, there will be limits on patron numbers, and strict distancing measures will be enforced.

But for his nearby bar Ferdydurke, the future is less certain. An intimate venue that used to regularly host live music, if it opened on Wednesday it could do so with only 13 people inside – including staff.

He has had to permanently close another CBD venue, Globe Alley, after being unable to pay the rent during lockdown.

Read the full story here.

The ACT has developed an app that residents use to scan into venues like restaurants and shops. The technology, a similar version of which is used by NSW and countries including New Zealand and South Korea, allows contact tracers immediate access to information about who was in a venue at a specific time, speeding up the tracing process by eliminating the need to engage with businesses who may be using pen-and-paper systems.

Premier Daniel Andrews said on Monday a paper-based system would be best for some businesses. "Often old-fashioned ways are the best way and there will be many small businesses who will write down and take great pride," he said.

NSW strongly encourages businesses to ask customers to use a government app to check in and the ACT has been using the model since early September. Data is stored for 28 days in both jurisdictions and cannot be used for purposes other than contact tracing.

Read the full story here.

The strenuous nature of exercise within a gym is one of the reasons for the 1 person per 8 square metres’ rule – this means there are fewer people in the space and if more people are wearing masks, there is a greater protective barrier against this.

Home businesses

Retail businesses that operate from home and are allowed to open under the Third Step can resume, such as a hairdresser. For a person to operate out of their home, they must have a discrete retail area, including:

• a dedicated premises for the business to operate that is separate from the place of residence in all aspects (e.g. workers or clients cannot enter the residence)
• another entrance for workers and clients that is separate to the residence
• no sharing of facilities (e.g. toilets; kitchen etc.).

Home businesses must have a COVIDSafe plan and are subject to the density quotient and cleaning requirements as per other retail settings. Face masks must be worn by the worker and client at all times.

Workers within the home

Cleaners and maintenance workers may attend a home to provide services under the Third Step. Such workers should be kept to the minimum necessary and must wear a mask. People who enter the home for work purposes do not count toward the daily visitor cap.

Flu season normally begins to climb in winter, but Data from the Actuaries Institute published yesterday has found that since mid-April, there has only been one doctor-certified death from influenza.

Professor Murphy said the number of flu cases had dropped across the board, with few if any cases in aged care, hospitals, or in the general community.

COVID-19 testing would also pick up any influenza, and Professor Murphy said "everyone's been very surprised" that only a handful of cases have been detected.