CROWDS will return to venues and events in three central Victorian municipalities in a double-vaccinated access trial from Monday.
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The Greater Bendigo, Pyrenees, and Buloke shires are among six regional locations chosen for the trials which will allow more fully vaccinated people to safely attend venues and events.
The venues will test event settings attached to the 80 per cent double-vaccination mark on Victoria's Roadmap to Deliver the National Plan - a threshold due to be achieved on or before November 5.
In Greater Bendigo, the venues that will be included are the Anglican Church of Australia in Flora Hill, Bendigo Art Gallery, Village Cinemas and Body Fit Training.
In Buloke, the chosen venue will be the Terminus Hotel in Wycheproof and in the Avoca Hotel will be the chosen location in the Pyrenees Shire.
Bendigo Art Gallery director Jessica Bridgfoot said the vaccine economy was a positive step forward.
She said the gallery would begin to rollout trial conditions from Tuesday, October 12.
"It's been a really good announcement more broadly for the arts culture and tourism sector. It's great to see the trial going ahead and we are really happy to be participating in it," she said.
Under the trial conditions, Ms Bridgfoot said all visitors to the gallery would have to be fully vaccinated.
She however if a visitor wasn't vaccinated, they would have to provide a medical exemption.
"They will have to provide proof of the vaccinations or of their medical exemptions," she said.
Ms Bridgfoot said she was looking forward to seeing crowds back at the gallery.
The key point of the business trials is to test new technology developed by several states and the federal government, designed to allow people to prove their vaccination status on their smartphones.
Minister for Government Services Danny Pearson said when patrons scanned the QR code at venues, they would have to check in as well as bring up their approved vaccination certificate.
"Victorians will be able to check into a venue and show the proof of vaccination at the same time by showing their COVID-19 digital certificate from the service Victoria app. The check-in confirmation screen will show a green tick," he said.
Anyone without a smart phone would have to apply to Services Australia for a hard copy of their vaccination certificate, but Mr Pearson estimated this only affected two per cent of Victorians.
The state government kept media, opposition and local government in the dark about the announcement until the announcement on Sunday morning. Business Minister Martin Pakula disputed the suggestion there had been a breakdown in communication, or that communities had been left unprepared by the last-minute announcement.
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"There was a process to select the LGAs then there was a process to select the individual businesses, those businesses have been in constant dialogue with us, and also with the Department of Health," he said.
The Victoria Tourism Industry Council chief executive Felicia Mariani said it was a great step forward.
"This is a great step forward for the state's tourism and events industry, that has suffered tremendous losses over the extended lockdowns of the last 18 months," she said.
"VTIC has worked closely with government departments on the regional trials that are being conducted from next week and many of the recommended businesses we put forward have been selected for the trials.
"This is a critical process in helping businesses to cope with the new processes they are being asked to manage and will go a long way in allaying some of the anxiety about these processes."
The announcement came as new COVID-19 cases in Victoria hit a new high, with COVID-19 Commander Jeroen Weimar expressing concern.
"There were 126 new cases across regional Victoria, again that is a significant continual growth as case numbers grow," he said.
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