With COVID-19 restrictions beginning to ease in regional Victoria this week, the State Government has a released a guide to ensure residents remain COVID safe as homes and businesses begin opening up.

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) Home Safety Plan, released on Saturday, is a resource for families to plan and implement COVID safe measures both at home and out in the community.

Similar to the Bushfire Survival Plan, the COVID plan provides small steps everyone can take to keep safe.

At home, the plan recommends undertaking regular cleaning of frequently touched surfaces, practicing good hygiene, setting up a COVID station near the front of your home including hand sanitiser, face masks and disinfectant to wipe down keys and wallets, and planning for potential illness.

In public, the plan suggests keeping a record of where you’ve been or who you’ve seen, sanitise trolley and shopping basket handles, and ensure social distancing is practiced and face masks are worn.

Minister for Health Jenny Mikakos recommended creating a plan as a family.

“By sitting down as a family or a household with a COVID Home Safety Plan, Victorians can make sure everyone is on the same page when it comes to staying safe,” she said.

While the COVID Normal phase of Victoria’s roadmap out of restrictions won’t come into effect until after November, Premier Daniel Andrews said a safety plan will be just as important then as it is now.

“We’ve said the whole way through – this is like a public health bushfire. And just like a bushfire, there’s steps we can all take to keep ourselves and our homes safe,” he said.

“We’ve been doing many of these things for months, but as we seek to reach and then maintain COVID Normal, they’ll still be as important as ever.”

For more ways to stay COVID safe find the full Coronavirus (COVID-19) Home Safety Plan at www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/covid-19-home- safety-plan.