Melbourne opens restaurants and shopping after four-month COVID-19 lockdown lifted

MELBOURNE: Melbourne’s shops, restaurants and hotels opened their doors on Wednesday (October 28) after a four-month coronavirus lockdown, with happy customers enjoying al fresco dining in the spring sunshine and merchants expecting big sales to come. make up for lost income.

The state of Victoria and its capital Melbourne, Australia’s second most populous city, has been the epicenter of COVID-19 infections, but the strict closure has ended a second wave, with only two new cases and two deaths during the night.

“About 180,000 workers are able to return to work at the site. That is an achievement that all Victorians should be proud of,” State Prime Minister Daniel Andrews said at a regular news conference.

“We all have to follow the rules, to protect staff, to protect customers, to protect this fragile thing that we have built … So that we can have the Christmas that we have been waiting for, with the people we have missed the most.”

On Melbourne’s Carlisle St, in the Prahran restaurant district, customers were sitting at outdoor dining tables, sipping coffee and eating a brunch of smashed avocado and eggs on toast.

A sign outside Las Chicas restaurant advertised any seasoned barista and floor staff to “submit a resume.”

“It’s a pretty sunny day here in Melbourne. It’s not over yet, but I’m very excited for things to reopen,” said student Ben Israelson, 22, who was having coffee with a friend from college.

Israelson, who lost his part-time job as a hearing aid salesman in late March, said he was optimistic that he would find work through a placement as part of his college studies next year.

A few stores down at the Beautyologist salon and retail store, director Sia Psicharis said she was prepared for a busy day of retail as she set up beauty services like brow hair removal and laser hair removal to open on Friday. Other classrooms opened Wednesday.

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In the seven months that the store was closed, she had invested in training staff on skin treatments and specialist Australian beauty brands, taking advantage of government help but also increasing their salaries.

“It was sink or swim, we put all our efforts into our social media and our e-commerce,” he said. “Now, I feel very excited, optimistic, I can’t wait to start. Christmas is coming so it’s an exciting time.”

Lounges and restaurants still have to meet strict space requirements that limit the number of restaurants to 10 for indoor and 50 outdoor space, making reopening some businesses unprofitable. Others have already closed permanently.

Among the cafes, bakeries and barbers in the commercial area were empty storefronts covered with For Rent signs.

Strict social distancing measures, mass testing and rapid contact tracing have seen Australia successfully combat a new outbreak of the virus, having eliminated cases of more than 700 a day in July, even as many other developed countries grapple with. a third wave of record infections. .

Eight new cases were reported Wednesday in Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales. Seven were foreign hotel quarantined travelers and one was local. The state of Queensland recorded two cases, bringing Australia’s total cases to 27,552.

Success against the virus, as well as fiscal and monetary stimulus, appears to be pulling Australia’s economy out of its first recession in three decades, which it entered briefly this year, although lower immigration and high unemployment will keep the path of uneven recovery, a Reuters poll showed this week.

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