Melbourne lifts two-hour limit on time spent outdoors

Restrictions in Australia’s second-largest city were eased slightly today after a steady decline in new coronavirus cases, but officials failed to end a controversial “stay at home” rule.

More than 100 days after the five million Melbourne residents were shut down, authorities lifted a two-hour limit on how long people could spend outside their homes for permitted activities.

They also expanded from 5 km to 25 km the distance that people could travel from their homes for various activities, such as exercising, shopping for essentials, socializing and working in essential professions.

Outdoor sports venues such as golf courses and tennis courts, as well as hair salons, were reopened.

But Daniel Andrews, the prime minister of the Victoria state that encompasses Melbourne, rejected growing calls for an end to all limits on allowing people to leave their homes and for a wider reopening of restaurants and other retail businesses.

He said the stay-at-home rule could be lifted and other business restrictions would be eased on November 1 if community transmission of the virus remains under control.

“I’m not doing what’s popular, I’m doing what’s safe, because we don’t want to come back here again” if there’s a new wave of infections, Andrews said.

The number of new daily coronavirus cases in Victoria has fallen to low single digits in recent days, having reached several hundred in August.

The outbreak in Victoria came after other parts of Australia successfully contained the epidemic and began to reopen their economies, especially in neighboring New South Wales, which includes Sydney.

Conservative politicians in other states, and the federal government, have been increasingly critical of the center-left Andrews government for maintaining the strict lockdown in Victoria, saying it was undermining national recovery efforts.

“Every day that Victoria remains under restrictions … comes at a high cost,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in a joint statement with his treasurer and health minister.

They urged Andrews to speed up the reopening of businesses, particularly in the restaurant and hospitality sector, which they said was losing 1,000 jobs each day after the shutdown.

But Andrews insisted that social distancing measures are needed to continue avoiding another outbreak.

“I announced today what is safe, but it will not undermine the sacrifice, the hard work, the pain, the incredible efforts that the Victorians have put in,” he said.

Australia has recorded more than 27,000 cases of the virus and 904 deaths in a population of 25 million, with more than 800 of the deaths in Victoria alone.