Household contacts of COVID-19 cases in the ACT will no longer have to quarantine from mid-next week, after the territory's government confirmed it would follow the lead of neighbouring states.
But household contacts in the ACT will have to wait four days longer than contacts in NSW and Victoria to be released as the territory will wait until after the long weekend to implement the changes.
Canberrans will also need to wait until next week to find out how the changes will affect school students and staff.
From 11.59pm on Tuesday, April 26, household contacts in the ACT who have no symptoms and follow guidelines to minimise movement in the community will not be required to isolate for seven days.
Household contacts will still need to declare they are a contact to ACT Health. They will also need to inform their employer if they are a household contact.
Contacts will need to wear a face mask in all indoor spaces when outside the home and work or study from home where it is practical.
Individuals must return a negative COVID-19 in the 24 hours before attending their place of work or study, and test every 48 hours if they must continue attending.
If people develop symptoms, they must be tested and isolate.
Household contacts will be banned from high-risk settings, including aged care facilities and hospitals, unless they reside there or need care.
Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said while the changes would be a relief for some households, it was important for people to do everything they could to minimise their exposures to others.
"We know that these changes to quarantine requirements will provide relief for many people, both for employers and for individuals. We know that there are many households who have had to quarantine a number of times as different family members have become positive for COVID-19," she said.
"It is important to emphasise that household contacts who are symptomatic and or cannot comply with the risk mitigation measures will still need to comply with quarantine requirements."
Household contacts will be released from isolation in NSW and Victoria on Friday evening. Ms Stephen-Smith said there was a delay in the ACT because extra time was needed to make changes to systems, including website updates, advice for businesses and to health directions.
Ms Stephen-Smith also said the ACT government were not aware of the full detail of the announcements from NSW and Victoria until it was released by the states on Wednesday morning.
"The advice from the chief health officer was that we just needed an extra few days. I know there will be potentially some frustration for people who are in quarantine over the weekend and we do apologise for that," she said.
The ACT government has also not released any information as to how the changes will affect schools and whether students who are household contacts will be able to attend school.
Changes for school students and staff are expected to be announced early next week.
While household contacts of COVID-positive people will be able to leave their homes, the government has told people they can only attend gatherings which are unavoidable, such as a funeral.
People who attend unavoidable gatherings must have returned a negative rapid antigen test in the 24 hours prior.
The government is exploring avenues for people to access rapid antigen tests, as the tests can be quite expensive, particularly for larger families.
"Rapid antigen tests are available at our COVID-19 testing centres for those people who meet the criteria for testing," Ms Stephen-Smith said.
"Most people who come to our testing centres once they are there they prefer to get a PCR test but we are looking at how we can distribute rapids to support these arrangements for people who are household contacts.
"We'll have a little bit more to say about the availability of rapid antigen tests probably early next week."
Ms Stephen-Smith said the rule change was really to enable people to return to work.
"This is not about encouraging people to leave quarantine or opening the door for people to just go out in the community and go into crowded spaces because they feel like it," she said.
"This is really about saying if your workplace needs you to come to work because they're really short staffed and you cannot work from home these are the risk mitigations we can put in place to enable you to do that with a level of safety."
Ms Stephen-Smith on Wednesday said the ACT would follow similar rules to those announced in Victoria and NSW.
Under the NSW changes, household contacts of positive COVID cases will no longer need to isolate from 6pm on Friday.
However, they will need to complete daily rapid antigen tests and wear masks when they are not at home. Household contacts will also be barred from visiting high-risk settings such as hospitals and aged care facilities.
Similar changes will come into place in Victoria at 11.59pm on Friday. Close contacts there must record at least five negative rapid antigen tests in the seven days after being deemed a close contact.
The ACT will also drop its quarantine requirement for returned unvaccinated overseas travellers from 11.59pm on Friday, April 29.
All international travellers arriving in Australia will be encouraged to get a COVID-19 test within 24 hours of their arrival.
About half of Canberrans may have been infected with COVID-19, with experts suggesting official case numbers now significantly downplay the true extent of the virus's spread.
The real numbers associated with the COVID-19 outbreak in Canberra could be more than 200,000 cases in a city of 431,000 residents, as the testing and quarantine regime shifts to accept a greater risk of transmission.
A large number of COVID-19 infections in the ACT means natural immunity will combine with vaccination coverage to help lessen the impact of potentially infectious people being allowed into the community.
