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Australian officials have extended a strict virus shutdown in Melbourne for two weeks, saying that new cases have not dropped enough to prevent another spike.
Residents of the country’s second-largest city were due to emerge from a harsh six-week lockdown next weekend, but now face continued restrictions for months to come.
The Prime Minister of the State of Victoria, Daniel Andrews, declared that the current blockade would remain in effect until 28 September.
“If we open up too fast, then we have a very high probability that we are not really opening at all, we are just starting a third wave,” he told a news conference.
“And we will go back in and out of the restrictions, in and out of the confinement, before the end of the year.”
Only 63 new cases and five deaths were recorded in Victoria today, after peaking at 700 at the height of the outbreak, but health officials are taking a cautious approach.
Hopes of a return to normalcy this month have been dashed, with a nightly curfew, restrictions on home visitors and a limit on traveling more than five kilometers that will remain in effect until at least October 26.
Announcing the roadmap for easing restrictions, Andrews said rushing to experience a “short spell of sunshine” would likely lead to the virus spinning out of control again.
The stricter rules will be relaxed in Melbourne from September 13, with a nightly curfew starting an hour later at 9 pm, daily exercise will be increased to two hours and small “social bubbles” will be created for women. people who live alone.
Under the government’s plan, child care centers will reopen and up to five people will be able to gather outdoors starting in late September, but only if cases drop below an average of 50 per day.
The rules for people living in regional and rural Victoria will be relaxed more quickly, due to the small number of active cases in those areas.
The announcement comes a day after more than a dozen anti-blockade protesters were arrested in Melbourne during clashes with police.
Hundreds of people attended the illegal gathering organized online by conspiracy theorists, calling the government’s response to the pandemic exaggerated or an outright “scam.”
Australia has been relatively successful in containing the virus, with the country recording just over 26,000 cases and 753 deaths in a population of 25 million.
The vast majority were reported in Melbourne over the past two months, while other regions have reversed restrictions after heavily controlling the virus.
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