Return to the office

The public health recommendation for Victorians to work or study from home will be removed.

Masks rules to ease

Masks will only be required indoors in the following circumstances, unless an exemption applies:

• people on public transport, in taxis and rideshare, on planes, and indoors at an airport
• people working or visiting hospitals, and indoor areas at care facilities
• workers in hospitality, retail and the court system
• workers at justice and correctional facilities
• students in year 3 or above at primary school, and workers at early childhood centres and primary schools (masks can be removed in secondary school)
• people working indoors at an event with more than 30,000 people attending
• in special circumstances, such as if you have COVID‑19 or are a close contact and you're leaving home.

Masks are recommended for other workers serving or facing members of the public (for example, if you are at reception, meeting guests or serving customers).

Vaccination requirement updates

The Minister for Health will also declare a number of temporary exceptions and deadline extensions for workers required to receive three doses of the COVID‑19 vaccine:

• The third dose deadline for workers in education facilities who were fully vaccinated on or before Monday 25 October 2021 will be extended by a month, provided that workers have a booking within that time. This means all education workers have until Friday 25 March 2022 to be 'up to date'.
• Fully vaccinated workers who aren't yet eligible for a third dose will have a third dose deadline of three months and two weeks from when they had their second dose.
• Workers who are recent international arrivals will have a new third dose deadline of four weeks from the date of their arrival, provided they have evidence of a future vaccine booking.
• Workers whose temporary medical exemption has expired (for example, because they had COVID‑19) will have a new third dose deadline of two weeks following the expiry of the medical exemption.

Further details on the new restrictions coming into place will be published online at coronavirus.vic.gov.au from 11:59pm on Friday 25 February 2022.

Read the full media release on the Premier's website.