SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA) – Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews said on Monday that a lockdown of Australia’s second-biggest city will be relaxed. The country’s coronavirus epicentre said it had gone a day without any new infections for the first time in four months.
Melbourne has been in lockdown since early July after a spike of novel coronavirus infections.
Andrews said most restrictions would be eased in two phases from Tuesday, which would give the economy a boost.
Andrews told reporters in Melbourne, “Now is the time to open up.”
“We’ve have been able to bring this under control, a day of zero cases is an amazing achievement.”
Andrews said people would be allowed to leave their homes from Tuesday, while restaurants, cafes, shops, bars and hotels would be allowed to reopen.
Capacities at those businesses, however, will be reduced down at 40 indoors and 70 outside.
The size of religious services would also be increased, Andrews said.
Andrews said people would be allowed to travel from Melbourne to the state’s rural areas from Nov. 9. Curbs restricting people to no more than 25 km (15.5 miles) from their homes will be withdrawn.
The easing of restrictions will boost hopes of a quick economic rebound from Australia’s first recession, which has happened in three decades.
The economy shrank 7% in the three months to the end of June. Unemployment hit a 22-year high of 7.5% in July as businesses and borders closed.
Most restrictions in other parts of Australia have been relaxed with very few locally acquired infections being found on most days.
Australia has recorded just over 27,500 novel coronavirus infections.
Victoria, which had registered more than 90% of the 905 deaths nationally, did not record any new deaths from the virus in the last one day.
