Sydney, Oct 4 (BUS): The Australian city of Melbourne has set a record for the long cumulative time the city has spent on lockdown.
Melbourne, the capital of the state of Victoria on the country’s east coast, on Sunday spent a total of 245 days living under stay-at-home orders, German news agency dpa reported.
Melbourne beat former record holder Buenos Aires. The Argentine capital was subjected to a 234-day lockdown from March 20 to November 11, 2020, and a short 10-day lockdown from May 21 to May 31 this year.
Melbourne is currently under its sixth lockdown since the coronavirus pandemic began, and the lockdown is set to last at least three more weeks.
Case numbers in Victoria recently surpassed neighboring New South Wales, which saw the start of a decline in case numbers after an apparent stabilization.
Nerves are on fire in Melbourne. Last month, protesters took to the streets several days in a row to protest mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations in the construction sector.
Victoria is expected to achieve 70 per cent vaccination coverage for people over 16 on October 26, ending the lockdown under the state’s roadmap before easing restrictions further at 80 per cent.
But state Premier Daniel Andrews said he would not rule out amending the roadmap and expanding restrictions if necessary.
Australia, with a population of 25 million, has long sought to eradicate the virus with a zero-Covid strategy, but after failing to contain several outbreaks of delta variants, it has largely turned to vaccination targets as a way out of lockdown.
Australia has recorded 105,000 cases and More than 1,200 deaths since the pandemic began.
MI