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SYDNEY: A nightly curfew in Australia’s second-largest city will be lifted from Monday (September 28), nearly two months after it was imposed in Melbourne to counter a growing coronavirus outbreak.
Victoria State Prime Minister Daniel Andrews said Melbourne residents would be free to leave their homes at any time to work, exercise, shop for essentials or provide care.
The relaxation comes after 16 new infections and two deaths were reported in Victoria on Sunday and the state’s active cases fell below 400 for the first time since June 30.
Melbourne’s curfew was imposed on August 2 along with a host of other restrictions as coronavirus cases skyrocketed in the city of roughly 5 million.
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Health Director Brett Sutton said “it was not a proportionate measure to have in the future” given the low number of cases.
People will still be confined less than 5 km from their homes and fines for violating other restrictions will be increased to nearly A $ 5,000 (US $ 3,515) to deter parties.
“We do not take this decision lightly, but no one has the right to risk everything that the Victorians have done … and potentially spread the virus,” Andrews told a news conference.
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Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, became the epicenter of Australia’s second wave after security bugs led the virus to escape from hotels used to quarantine travelers returning from abroad.
Andrews said several other restrictions will also be lifted, allowing workers from various industries to return and small religious services to resume.
Elementary students will return to classrooms from mid-October and nurseries will reopen immediately.
Visits to hospitals and nursing homes can be resumed under strict conditions, but home visits will remain prohibited and outdoor gatherings will be limited to five people from two households.
Andrews said the evidence was “irrefutable” that homes were “one of the riskiest environments” for transmission of the virus.
“It’s like people let their guard down, and there is a certain degree of informality, there is no distancing, there is no cleaning at that industrial level, that’s when this virus escapes you,” he said.
Australia has been relatively successful in slowing the spread of COVID-19, with just over 27,000 cases and 872 deaths in a population of 25 million.
Most regions now report little or no new daily infection, allowing restrictions to be lowered in much of the country.
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