MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city, will relax its third blockade on Wednesday and allow spectators to return to the Australian Open tennis tournament after a five-day absence.
Rod Laver Arena will be allowed 7,477 spectators, about 50% of its capacity, during the last four days of the first Grand Slam event for 2021, according to tournament organizers.
Up to 30,000 tennis fans a day had been allowed to enter three areas of the tournament grounds, Melbourne Park, before the Victoria State Closing.
Victoria Prime Minister Daniel Andrews previously said health authorities would decide the number of tennis players.
“We’ll end up crowded in a lot of different places,” Andrews said. “We’re going to end up with people who can move freely because this short, strong switch has worked.”
The closure has been applied throughout Victoria, with a population of 6.5 million people, to prevent the virus from spreading from the state capital.
Most restrictions will be removed after 11:59 p.m. after no new infections are detected in the last 24-hour period, Andrews said.
Schools and companies will reopen.
But people will still have to wear masks and home visitors will be limited to five people until Feb. 26, when the last of the state’s 25 active COVID-19 cases will cease to be infectious.
All cases have been located in a Melbourne airport hotel, where travelers are quarantined for 14 days on arrival from abroad.
Companies complained that the closure, announced just hours before it went into effect last Friday, would disrupt the Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day festivities.
All tennis spectators were kicked out of Melbourne Park at 11.30pm so they had time to get home before the home order came into force. Many whistled as they left. The Australian Open has continued without spectators since.
Some business leaders described the latest blockade as an overreaction.
“It is clear that testing and monitoring were the keys to resolving this possible outbreak and not the blockade that was disproportionate to the risk,” said Tim Piper, head of state for the Australian industrial group.
“We need to learn from this blockade and adjust the responses accordingly,” Piper added.
Andrews did not guarantee that there would be no more blockades announced at short notice.
“I’m not prepared to pretend to the Victorian community that this is over,” Andrews said.
Melbourne came out of a 111-day shutdown in October after a new wave of infections peaked at 725 cases a day. Much of the lax infection control procedures at two Melbourne quarantine hotels were blamed.
At the time, the rest of Australia was easing restrictions due to the low number of cases after an initial nationwide closure.
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McGuirk contributed from Canberra, Australia.