Sydney, Oct. 28, (dpa/GNA) – The Australian state of Victoria was celebrating the end of second-wave coronavirus lockdown rules on Wednesday, which saw the capital city Melbourne under stay-at-home orders for 112 days.
The city of 4.9 million residents has lived through one of the world’s longest lockdowns, which was initially imposed in early July when cases neared 200 a day.
Despite restrictions, cases surged to around 700 daily infections in early August, leading Premier Daniel Andrews to declare a state of emergency and enforce a strict new set of rules across the entire state – some of the toughest in the world.
Under the heavily-policed lockdown introduced on August 2, a night-time curfew was imposed and residents could only travel within 5 kilometres of their homes and were limited to one hour of daily outdoor exercise.
While some restrictions were eased in recent weeks, from 11:59 pm on Tuesday Melbourne officially came back to life with restaurants, cafes, pubs and retail stores allowed to open their doors.
Some bars hosted New Year’s Eve style celebrations, counting down to midnight before letting a limited 20 customers flood through the doors with cheers and confetti.
For other businesses, reopening came with a sense of trepidation after several relentless months of uncertainty.
“I’m just relieved,” Kieran Spiteri, owner of Melbourne cafe Terror Twilight, told dpa.
“It feels like a new time, a new sense of freedom but we’re nervous. This is the second time we’ve been through this and last time we only got to open for a month.”
Melbourne is known as Australia’s cultural capital with a vibrant cafe scene and European-style laneways filled with boutique art galleries and hidden bars.
“Pre-Covid, Melbourne’s cafe and dining scene was world-leading. The brunch scene we created is something you don’t get anywhere else,” Spiteri said.
He said that the usually bustling Collingwood area had turned into a ghost town, but he was confident that after having freedoms taken away for so long, locals’ desire for “something as simple as eggs on toast made by a chef” will see the scene soon come back to life.
Melburnians are still restricted to a 25-kilometre travel limit, which is expected to be lifted on November 8.
At that time the metaphorical “ring of steel” separating Melbourne from regional Victoria will also be lifted.
The premier has indicated that masks will remain mandatory outdoors across the state for the rest of the year and possibly into 2021.
“We’ve really been hanging out to get to regional Victoria and visit the family farm. Being stuck in the city has been driving us stir-crazy,” said Ryder Susman, who has been working from home with two children under 4-years-old for the past three months.
He added that he had become desensitized to the lockdown and was finding it hard to be excited after the premier’s daily announcements for long “didn’t change anything.”
Andrews had come under harsh criticism from the federal government for prolonging the strict lockdown, which was initially planned to end in mid-September.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said that “under the Victorian Stage 4 lockdown, Victoria has seen the devastation of more than 1,000 job losses per day.”
Australia, a nation of around 25 million people, has recorded just over 27,500 coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic – significantly fewer than most developed countries.
The country has taken a lockdown approach, alongside rigorous testing and tracing to contain the virus.
On Wednesday, New South Wales, the country’s most populous state, recorded just one new locally transmitted case of Covid-19 and Victoria recorded two new cases.
The national death toll stands at 907, with 819 from Victoria.
GNA