National cabinet has agreed to cut the Covid isolation period from seven to five days for people without symptoms.
But the seven-day mandatory isolation will remain in place for workers in high-risk settings such as aged care and people who are still sick.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, announced on Wednesday that state and territory leaders had agreed to the change based on an update from the acting chief medical officer, Prof Michael Kidd.
Albanese called the approach “proportionate” to the changing circumstances of the pandemic.
“This would apply to people with no symptoms,” he said. “Clearly, if you have symptoms, we want people to stay home, we want people to act responsibly.”
National cabinet on Wednesday also agreed to scrap mandatory mask-wearing on domestic flights. Both measures will come into effect on Friday 9 September.
Albanese said national cabinet was “collegiate” and had reaffirmed the need for a nationally consistent approach. Leaders will meet again in a fortnight to consider whether pandemic leave payments would be extended beyond 30 September when they are due to expire.
“We made a decision today about reducing [isolation],” Albanese said. “That is a change. We haven’t changed the arrangements with regard to payments.”
The payments will be reduced, however, to about $535 from the $750 rate for seven-day isolation.
The prime minister rejected suggestions people would be forced into five days of isolation from October without government support – saying that was yet to be determined.
He indicated the five-day isolation period would eventually be further reduced or scrapped, but there was no timetable for that.
“We will continue to assess these issues and what restrictions are appropriate at any point in time,” he said.
National cabinet had discussed the role of personal responsibility when deciding to cut the isolation period, Albanese said.
“We had a discussion about people looking after each other, people looking after their own health, people being responsible for that,” he said. “That is what has been happening. There aren’t mandated requirements for the flu or for a range of other illnesses that people can suffer from and what we want to do is to make sure that government responds to the changed circumstance.”
Kidd recommended the reduction in isolation not apply to people working in aged care, disability care or in-home care settings to help protect people who were “particularly vulnerable”.
Prof Nancy Baxter, the head of the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne, said the decision was not being driven by health considerations.
“This is being driven by politics, it is not being driven by science,” she told Guardian Australia.
“Politicians want to talk about the pandemic like it is over … and we are getting this lowest common denominator where any restriction you can get rid of, any protection you can get rid of is a good thing.
“We are not going to see a spike in cases because of this, but what is going to happen is people are going to get infected at work who otherwise could have avoided it.”
Baxter also said Covid-19 could not be considered like other viruses or the common cold, pointing to the 550 people who died in the past 10 days. “What other virus is one of the top killers of Australians?” she said.
The latest data from the federal health department suggests there are an estimated 111,000 people currently with Covid. About 3,000 people are hospitalised across the country.
National cabinet had considered cutting the isolation period at last month’s meeting as Covid case numbers were peaking across the country, but this was not supported by the chief medical officer, Prof Paul Kelly.
The NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, had been advocating for a reduction in the isolation period, arguing that people needed to shift their mindset to manage the virus as with other infectious diseases.
He was backed by the federal opposition leader, Peter Dutton, who said the community expected there to be a change and the “premiers and prime minister should deliver”.
“Clearly now we’re moving into a phase where the isolation period will reduce and the arrangements … that were in place at the height of Covid will start to unwind,” Dutton said on Tuesday.
Earlier on Wednesday, the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said that the cost of pandemic leave payments needed to be considered by national cabinet after the federal government agreed in July to extend the assistance until September.
“We’ve shown a willingness in the past to be responsive to the conditions, but that kind of support can’t go on for ever, given the economic and fiscal situation that we’ve inherited,” Chalmers said.
However, unions are arguing that for as long as isolation periods are mandated by government the support payment must remain in place.
