JAKARTA - The Australian state of Victoria on Wednesday ended a five-day lockdown period allowing a limited number of spectators to attend the Australian Open tennis tournament at Melbourne Park, local officials said.
State Prime Minister Daniel Andrews said most movement restrictions would be lifted by midnight Wednesday, but masks would remain mandatory both indoors and outdoors when social distancing rules could not be followed.
The lifting of this restriction is because there are no more new cases in a cluster linked to a quarantine hotel in the city of Melbourne.
"In a broader sense, we are safe and open," Andrews said in a televised press conference, as reported by Antara from Reuters, but warned that the latest outbreak was not yet fully contained.
The lifting of the restrictions will allow at least a limited number of spectators at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne, where players previously competed in empty stadiums during the lockdown.
"There will be a meeting this afternoon ... where we will discuss safe numbers and will have the decision made as quickly as possible," Andrews said.
Under the pre-lockdown agreement with the Victorian government, crowd attendance will be limited to 25,000 for each day over the past four days, but Andrews said that figure may be reduced further.
Officials have allowed 30,000 spectators for each of the first eight days of the tournament - about half the normal attendance.
Prior to the lockdown, the tournament attendance was limited to 25,000 and that could be reduced further for the final four days of the tournament, Andrews said.
The lockdown in Victoria, Australia's second most populous state, was sparked by the discovery of a COVID-19 case at a quarantine hotel in Melbourne.
The number of cases swelled to 19, but no new infections were reported as of Wednesday.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
