Melbourne, the city with the most days in quarantine, returns to normal

The more than five million inhabitants of the Australian city of Melbourne returned to normal this Friday after becoming the city in the world that has spent the most days under strict quarantine and after reaching the goal of 70% of complete vaccination against coronavirus covid-19 among its population.

Melbourne accumulates the record of 263 days under order of isolation by adding the six different periods in which the measure was implemented in the city, whose last quarantine ended at the beginning of the day and after 77 uninterrupted days.

SIGHT: The city in the world that has spent the longest time in strict confinement comes out of quarantine

The Australian city surpassed Buenos Aires in early October, which was confined 244 days between March-November and nine days in May.

The end of this sixth confinement, which began in mid-August as a result of an outbreak of the virus, was celebrated with uproar in the streets by passersby and drivers honking their horns, and groups of revelers gathered in bars and restaurants.

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“One can feel optimism, pride in what has been achieved. And after all it has taken to get here, we absolutely deserve to feel that way. “, the head of government of Victoria, Daniel Andrews, published this Friday on Twitter.

Bar staff working on the terrace of the Public House Bar in Melbourne, Australia, on October 22, 2021. (EFE / EPA / JAMES ROSS).

The regional ruler also announced that from 1 November Australians and residents, as well as close relatives, will not have to quarantine upon arrival in the city, a measure similar to that previously announced by the city of Sydney.

A minute before the end of the confinement, residents Amanda and Keith celebrated their wedding, marking the 21st anniversary since they met, published the newspaper The Age along with a photograph with the kiss of the bride and groom.

Other Melbourne residents went to beauty salons and hairdressers after midnight to celebrate the return to normal practice, which applies fewer restrictions to people vaccinated with the full schedule and maintains a series of limitations on those with one or no doses.

PRIVILEGES FOR VACCINES

The reopening of Victoria, which follows the deconfinement of the city of Sydney since October 11, responds to a national plan based on vaccination rates on the 70, 80 and 90% marks that so far advances at different speeds in the different regions that make up Australia.

The plan prioritizes the relaxation of measures for fully vaccinated people, while those who are not yet will have to comply with many restrictions, something that has created discomfort in Melbourne.

Esthetician Ruby Williams works on Brittney Pearson’s lashes at Skin Essentials Beautician in Elwood, Melbourne. (EFE / EPA / JAMES ROSS).

“It is something that worries all my fellow hoteliers. They are concerned about the staff “Danial Caneva, owner of a Melbourne bar, commented to The Age, stressing that his sector was “one of the first to close” and now they will be “the first to be mistreated.”

Tonight the inhabitants will no longer have to comply with the night curfew and up to ten people will be able to meet indoors, in addition, several businesses will be allowed to reopen, although outdoor and indoor capacity will continue to be partially limited.

The authorities, however, will maintain the ban on travel from Melbourne to other areas of the state of Victoria, where the limitations will be less compared to the regional capital.

Although Victoria is about to reach 90% of the administration of the first dose of the serum against covid-19, there is a group of anti-vaccines that has come out on several occasions to protest in the streets against the sanitary measures imposed by the covid- 19, sometimes violently.

OPENING DESPITE CASES

The reopening of Victoria, where the authorities confirmed today 2,189 community infections and 16 deaths, is due to a shift in national policy with the aim of reopening the country and that recently ended the ironclad strategy of decreeing short confinements and located by detecting a few cases.

Melbourne, confined for the first time in March 2020, was the epicenter of the second wave of the pandemic in the oceanic country between June and October last year, a period in which the highest number of deaths occurred, especially among elderly people in residences.

In February of this year, Melbourne was confined again for a few days -when the Australia tennis-, as in late May and again in July; while the sixth confinement ended today after spending 77 days in quarantine.

Australia has accumulated more than 154,000 cases since the start of the pandemic, including more than 1,600 deaths, and has vaccinated 71% of the target population with the full schedule and 86% with at least one dose.

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