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Victoria accounts for around 75 per cent of Australia’s more than 26,600 cases and its capital Melbourne has been under strict lockdown for several weeks.
The city will remain under strict lockdown, but the amount of time people will be able to spend outside will double to two hours a day and the overnight curfew will be reduced by one hour starting Monday.
“These are small steps, but that is what is safe, absolutely appropriate, with numbers still going down, but (remaining) too high to open,” Victoria’s Prime Minister Daniel Andrews said in a televised briefing.
Businesses, primarily hospitality, retail and tourism businesses, that have been shut down entirely or whose operations have been substantially reduced will have access to grants and tax breaks through the state’s largest business support package yet, he announced. .
In neighboring New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, where social distancing rules are more relaxed and retailers and restaurants can open, authorities recorded nine new cases on Sunday.
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