Melbourne pubs and cafes can have an unlimited number of customers from tonight, and the stadiums will be able to welcome people back to their full potential, as the authorities had almost all the remaining restrictions against COVID-19 for vaccinated residents in Australia’s second largest city.
The state of Victoria, which has its capital in Melbourne, is gradually lifting the restrictive measures it had adopted to stop COVID-19 while achieving vaccination against the disease caused by the new coronavirus in 70%, 80% and 90% of the population. which can be immunized, and the current easing of measures is part of a change in its ‘living together with the new coronavirus’ policy strategy. The full level of vaccination, ie immunization of 90% of the population to whom the COVID-19 vaccine is proposed, is expected to be achieved over the weekend.
“Your life will return to normal, you will be able to enjoy all the things you longed for and missed,” Prime Minister Daniel Andrews told a news conference.
Under the looser rules that will apply from tonight, people will be able to dance in the nightclubs and there will be no restrictions on the number of people that can be gathered in one house. However, masks remain mandatory at health facilities, public transport and retail stores.
The easing of restrictions also means they can fill stadiums in major sporting events, such as the Australian Open tennis tournament.
Australia had largely halted the new coronavirus epidemic for most of this year until the outbreak of the delta strain of the virus in late June, which spread rapidly to Sydney and Melbourne, its largest cities, and capital Canberra, pushing the authorities to adopt lockdown months. Since then they have been coming out of the lockdowns through an acceleration of the rate of vaccinations.
Even with the delta strain of the new coronavirus, Australia has so far recorded approximately 194,000 cases of the new coronavirus and 1,922 deaths from COVID-19, numbers that are much lower than those recorded in many countries with which it could compared.
New South Wales, whose capital is Sydney, announced today 262 cases of the new coronavirus and Victoria 1,007 new cases, while in the Territory of the Australian Capital 25 cases were recorded in the previous 24 hours. Also announced were 15 deaths from COVID-19.
Northern Australia is struggling to contain a new outbreak of coronavirus as authorities work to speed up vaccinations to prevent the virus from spreading to remote communities. No other COVID-19 cases or patients are detected in other states and territories
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