Melbourne lockdown 20228/29/2023 ![]() ![]() "A lot of the traffic comes from people working in the city, and a lot of the tradies haven't gone back to work yet," Kovacs said.The year started with hours-long queues for Covid tests, and ended with testing, mask and isolation mandates gone, despite continuing deaths. The reopening will be a boost for Australia's A$2 trillion ($1.5 trillion) economy after recent lockdowns pushed it to the brink of a second recession in as many years.Īt Melbourne's once bustling Journal Cafe, waitress Sullivan Kovacs said business was still modest on Friday and that customer numbers would increase once office workers and trades people returned to the city en masse. Under more relaxed rules, restaurants and cafes can reopen with up to 20 people indoors and 50 outdoors - all of whom must be vaccinated - while 10 guests can gather at homes. It's been very difficult," said David Boyle, the head chef at the up-market Farmer’s Daughters restaurant in Melbourne. "We've been open for a year, and this is our fourth lockdown. It has been an arduous period, especially for those in Melbourne running a business. With a once-stuttering vaccine rollout gaining momentum, authorities no longer plan to rely on extended lockdowns to suppress the virus. The state recorded a further five deaths. The state of Victoria, of which Melbourne is the capital, reported 2,189 new local COVID-19 cases and 16 deaths on Friday, making it the centre of the Delta outbreak in Australia.ĭaily cases in New South Wales, home to Sydney where the Delta variant was first detected in June, dropped slightly to 345. A LONG LOCKDOWNĮven with Delta outbreaks across Australia's southeast from late June, coronavirus numbers are still far lower than those of many comparable nations, with some 152,000 cases and 1,590 deaths. ![]() "This is a wonderful day - Australia is ready for take-off," Prime Minister Scott Morrison said shortly after the Qantas announcement.Ī quarantine-free travel bubble between Australia and Singapore could operate from next month, Morrison said, if an agreement is reached as expected. Qantas said it would launch a new route from Sydney to Delhi in early December and bring forward plans for flights to Singapore, Fiji, Johannesburg, Bangkok and Phuket. Qantas Airways Ltd (QAN.AX) said on Friday that it would speed up plans to restart flights to many destinations and upsize some planes amid "massive demand". 1, fully vaccinated international travellers arriving in Sydney and Melbourne will no longer need to quarantine. Just over 70% of adults in Australia are now fully vaccinated and many residents are planning to fly overseas again as international border restrictions start to ease from November. Similar jubilant scenes were seen in the country's largest city, Sydney, almost two weeks ago, when authorities started easing restrictions as COVID-19 vaccination rates rose. "I have urged our customer base, make sure you have booked in your Christmas cut." "We all love cutting hair and being on the floor is such a lovely feeling, being around people," he said. Josh Mihan, owner of The Bearded Man barber shop in Melbourne, told Reuters he is nearly booked out for the next month and he is encouraging customers to make appointments for Christmas. Many venues, including food outlets and even haircutters, opened at the unusual hour for the occasion. on Thursday when lockdown restrictions in place since early August ended. In Melbourne, people were seen cheering and clapping from their balconies, while cars honked horns continuously at 11:59 p.m. MELBOURNE, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Melbourne residents flocked to the city's pubs, restaurants and hair salons in the early hours of Friday after the world's most locked-down city emerged from its latest spate of restrictions designed to combat the spread of COVID-19.Īustralia's second-largest city has so far endured 262 days, or nearly nine months, of restrictions during six separate lockdowns since March 2020, representing the longest cumulative lockdown for any city in the world.Īrgentina's capital, Buenos Aires, last year went through 234 straight days of lockdown.
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