Australia’s second-most populous city will enter a five-day coronavirus lockdown, authorities said Friday, excluding spectators for much of the Australian Open tennis tournament.
A new cluster of COVID-19 linked to a quarantine hotel in Melbourne, the Victorian state capital, reached 13 cases as of midnight Thursday, when authorities rushed to quell the spread of the virus. All of these infections were linked to the highly contagious British variant.
Victoria’s Prime Minister Daniel Andrews announced the state shutdown, starting at midnight Friday, calling it a “short and sharp circuit breaker” that bans public gatherings, home auctions, weddings and gatherings. religious.
“We must assume that there are more cases in the community than we have positive results, and that it is moving at a speed that has not been seen anywhere in our country in the course of these last 12 months,” Andrews told the journalists. noting the high transmission rate of the UK variant.
When asked about the Australian Open, which runs through February 21, the prime minister said that the Grand Slam tournament, one of the biggest events on the country’s sporting calendar, was seen as a workplace, subject to blocking restrictions.
“There are no fans. There are no crowds. These people are essentially in their workplace, ”he said. “The minimum number of staff to run it safely, not just because of the virus but for other reasons, will be there.”
The event had already been limited to 50% of usual capacity and was affected by earlier complaints from some international players, who were forced to spend critical time in quarantine preparation.
Event organizers confirmed that the tournament would continue without crowds for the next five days and no fans would be allowed at the match sites.
However, spectators could attend games scheduled for Thursday, while those who purchased tickets to restricted events would receive a refund, organizers said in a statement. “The Australian Open sessions today and tonight will continue as planned with the secure COVID protocols in place,” it read.
Other states like Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania that have practically eliminated the virus, closed their borders to Victoria. The most populous state in New South Wales, which recorded a 26 day with zero community cases on Friday, has so far kept its borders open.
Victoria endured one of the tightest and longest lockdowns in the world last year after an outbreak that killed more than 800 people in the state, the vast majority of the national death toll.
The head of Australia’s corporate lobby group expressed frustration at the new shutdown, calling it a “bitter disappointment to the entire community.
“This is the second lockdown caused by Victoria’s hotel quarantine system, it should not be as long and destructive as the previous one,” said Business Council executive director Jennifer Westacott. “We must get the hotel quarantine to work properly.”
More broadly, Australia has been among the most successful countries in the world in handling the pandemic, in large part due to decisive closures and sealed borders for all but a trickle of travelers, with some 22,200 community cases and 909 deaths. .
But its quarantined hotels, where all international arrivals have to spend two weeks, have been a weak link in its defenses, with the latest Melbourne cluster being another example.
Prime Minister Andrews proposed to toughen Australia’s repatriation program for compassionate reasons only, a move that could garner some support from other states that have suffered from UK strain.
Prior to the closure announcement, Prime Minister Scott Morrison offered his government’s full support for Victoria’s decisions on containing the outbreak.
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She is a freelance blogger, writer, and speaker, and writes for various entertainment magazines.