Isolation rules were reduced from seven to five days earlier this year in Australia. Photo: 123RF
Rules forcing Australians to isolate for five days if they test positive to Covid-19 will end from 14 October for everyone, with support for some workers to be able to continue isolation if needed.
States will determine how to implement the change, but National Cabinet agreed to protect the most-vulnerable people - those in high-risk settings - and to continue targeted financial support for casual workers to be able to isolate as well as workers in aged care, disability care, Aboriginal health care and hospital care.
Support payments for people infected with Covid-19 who are not in those sectors will also end in two weeks.
Scrapping mandatory isolation marks the end of one of the last remaining pandemic restrictions.
Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said he was asked to provide advice on whether isolation periods should be scrapped, and said he recognised there were low rates of Covid-19 transmission.
"It does not in any way suggest that the pandemic is finished," he said.
"We will almost certainly see future peaks of the virus into the future, as we have seen earlier in this year.
"However, at the moment, we have very low rates of … cases, hospitalisations, intensive care admissions, aged-care outbreaks and various other measures that we have been following very closely."
Professor Kelly's advice to National Cabinet noted that "continued capacity to surge the response if required" remained a necessary consideration.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said where isolation was previously mandated there was a responsibility for government to provide support.
He said it was not sustainable for government to pay people's wages "forever".
"It was always envisaged that these measures were emergency measures that were put in place," Albanese said.
He said that had the unanimous agreement of state and territory leaders.
In the lead-up to Friday's meeting, several premiers had publicly called for the isolation period to be removed.
Others had noted they wanted to hear from the Chief Medical Officer on the latest health advice before making a decision.
Friday's decision comes a month after the isolation period was reduced from seven to five days in Australia.
- ABC