Australia's COVID-19 hotspot to partially lift lockdown restrictions
18 October, 2020
Officials announced hook easing of lockdown restrictions in Australia's second-biggest city on Sunday (Oct 18) carrying out a steady decline in new COVID-19 cases, however, they stopped short of ending a controversial "stay-at-home" rule.
More than 100 days following the lockdown was imposed on Melbourne's 5 million residents to fight an out-of-control surge of coronavirus cases, authorities lifted a two-hour limit on enough time people could spend outside their homes for permitted activities.
They also extended to 25km the distance persons could travel from their homes for all those activities, which include exercise, searching for essentials, socializing, and work in essential professions.
But Daniel Andrews, the premier of Victoria state which encompasses Melbourne, rejected growing demands for an end to all limits on people having the ability to leave their homes and for a broader reopening of restaurants and other retail businesses.
He said the stay-at-home rule could possibly be lifted and other business restrictions eased on Nov 1 if community transmission of the virus remains under control.
"I'm not doing what's popular, I am doing what is safe, because we don't want to be back here again" if there is a fresh wave of infections, Andrews said.
The number of new daily coronavirus cases in Victoria has fallen to low single digits for the past several days, after running at up to many hundred in August.
The outbreak in Victoria came after other areas of Australia had successfully contained the epidemic and begun to reopen their economies, notably in neighboring New South Wales, which include Sydney.
Conservative politicians in other states and the federal government have already been increasingly critical of Andrews's center-left government for maintaining the strict lockdown in Victoria, saying it had been undermining national recovery efforts.
"It's time to make certain that we are able to now move forward and present Victorians and Melburnians the opportunity to build back, to recuperate what has been so terribly lost," Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday.
But Andrews insisted social distancing measures had a need to continue steadily to prevent another outbreak.
"I've announced today what's safe, but won't undermine the sacrifice, the hard work, the pain, the amazing efforts that Victorians have devote," he said.
Successes Down Understand in stark contrast to the problem in Europe, where authorities from Spain to Britain have this week moved to implement tough new lockdown measures when confronted with a continent-wide surge in infections.
Australia has recorded a lot more than 27,000 cases of the virus and 904 deaths in a population of 25 million, with an increase of than 800 of the deaths in Victoria alone.
Source: www.channelnewsasia.com
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