As previewed this week, isolation rules for more workers in more critical industries will be relaxed as Omicron continues its march forward. It will be up to the state and territories to implement, but the idea is teachers, child care workers and others in critical industries like transport and freight won’t have to isolate if they’re a close contact of a COVID case. They will need to return a negative rapid test to get back on the tools, which remain hard to come by. PM Morrison yesterday outlined the changes following a meeting of the National Cabinet as pinch points across the economy grow. And he had a bit to say about people attending ‘COVID parties’ to catch the virus and, they believe, gain immunity. The problem with that scenario: reinfection can occur with Omicron. “All this nonsense about COVID parties, it’s ridiculous,” Morrison said.