Australia: Melbourne Set to End World’s Longest COVID Lockdown, Targets 80% Double Dose

Melbourne, Australia, which has spent the most time under COVID-19 lockdowns than any other city in the world, is set to lift its stay-at-home orders this week.

Melbourne, Australia, which has undergone more time under COVID lockdowns than any other city in the world, is set to lift its stay-at-home orders this week. On Sunday, October 17, Daniel Andrews, the premier of Victoria state, of which Melbourne is the capital, announced the relaxation of curbs. Officials anticipate that the state's double-vaccination rate will reach 70% this week. "Today is a great day. Today is a day when Victorians can be proud of what they have achieved," Andrews said in a press release.

He also posted the announcement with a Press release on Twitter, the caption read, "The Chief Health Officer today determined that at 11.59 pm on Thursday 21 October, Victoria will move forward in opening up. Victorians can get together with family at home, hospo can reopen inside and out across the state, and students are back to class earlier than planned."

The Chief Health Officer today determined that at 11.59pm on Thursday 21 October, Victoria will move forward in opening up.

Victorians can get together with family at home, hospo can reopen inside and out across the state, and students are back to class earlier than planned. pic.twitter.com/ZBHQeiZHnr

— Dan Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) October 17, 2021

By the time the curbs are lifted, the five-million-person city will have been subjected to six lockdowns totalling 262 days since March 2020. According to Australian and other media, this is the world's longest lockdown, surpassing Buenos Aires' 234-day lockdown. As the Delta variant has proven too transmissible to suppress, Australia, once a champion of a Zero-COVID pandemic management strategy, has been moving toward living with the virus through extensive vaccinations.

In a subsequent tweet, Daniel Andrews announced, "The next stop on the roadmap is 80% double dose, and at the moment we think this will happen in the first week of November. But to get there we need to keep getting vaccinated. To book a vaccination appointment head to."

"The next stop on the roadmap is 80% double dose, and at the moment we think this will happen in the first week of November.

But to get there we need to keep getting vaccinated. To book a vaccination appointment head to https://t.co/XeXaiKcZpq

— Dan Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) October 17, 2021"

More than 65% of people over the age of 16 in Victoria have received a second dose of a vaccine, and 89% have received at least one dose. Andrews stated that with the lifting of the stay-at-home order, people will be permitted to have up to ten visitors per day at their homes.

Source: Republic World