[ad_1]
MELBOURNE: Australian officials on Sunday (Sept. 6) extended a strict virus lockdown of the country’s second-largest city for two weeks, saying new cases had not declined enough to prevent another surge.
Melbourne residents were due to emerge from a harsh six-week lockdown next weekend but face continued restrictions for months to come, and Victoria’s state Prime Minister Daniel Andrews said the current lockdown would remain in effect until the 28th. of 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 on Sunday, after peaking above 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 5 km that will remain in effect until at least October 26.
Australia’s state of Victoria reports declining new COVID-19 cases, which may ease restrictions
READ: Australia’s Q2 GDP Shrinks at Record Rate As COVID-19 Pushes Country Into Recession
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 9:00 pm, daily exercise will be increased to two hours and small “social bubbles” will be created. for 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 from 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.
CHECK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments
Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram
