Standing up while drinking in NSW bars and clubs is allowed for the first time in a year, with the relaxation of restrictions on weddings and funerals next on the list.
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From Wednesday, people in NSW will be permitted to stand and drink at a bar, as promised during the state's last round of restriction-easing in late February.
The move arrived in time for St Patrick's Day, and Treasurer Dominic Perrottet promised more changes were on the way.
"This is what life is all about," Treasurer Dominic Perrottet on Wednesday said at the Mercantile Hotel in The Rocks, Sydney's oldest Irish pub.
"Today is a great day because it shows that we are returning back to normal."
Mr Perrottet and Deputy Premier John Barilaro signalled that restrictions on weddings and funerals would be the next to go, with support for Sydney's CBD and live music on the way.
The government wanted the same rules to eventually apply across all settings, whether people were at a wedding or the pub, Mr Perrottet said.
Deputy Premier John Barilaro said that as the state reopened, the measure of success would be how much risk was minimised, not whether the state recorded zero cases on any given day.
The move comes as NSW faces an anxious wait to see how far an emerging outbreak in a Sydney hotel will spread.
A new case of COVID-19 was announced on Wednesday, linked to a hotel guest whose infection is genomically linked to a security guard diagnosed last week.
NSW Health said the returned traveller was quarantining on the 11th floor of the Sofitel Sydney Wentworth hotel where the guard was believed to have been infected by a guest.
NSW Health analysis has established all three cases have the highly contagious UK strain of the virus.
It's believed the security guard was somehow infected by the first guest, who arrived at the hotel on March 5.
NSW Health said all other returned travellers on the same floor had tested negative to date.
Australian Associated Press
