Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city has set a record for the longest COVID-19 lockdown after the city spent a cumulative time of 245 days -– overtaking Buenos Aires as the city that has spent the most cumulative days under stay-at-home orders.
By the time Melbourne’s current lockdown lifts at the end of the month, it will have spent 267 days in lockdown – 45% of the time since the coronavirus pandemic was declared on 12 March 2020.
Melbourne beat previous record-holder Buenos Aires. The Argentine capital endured a 234-day lockdown from March 20 to November 11, 2020, and a short 10-day circuit-breaker lockdown from May 21 to May 31 this year, ABC reported.
Melbourne is currently in its sixth lockdown since the coronavirus pandemic began, and the lockdown is set to continue for at least three more weeks.
Case numbers in Victoria state only recently overtook neighboring New South Wales, which has seen case numbers start to drop after an apparent plateau.
Nerves are flaring in Melbourne. Last month, demonstrators took to the streets several days in a row in protest at mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations in the construction sector.
According to dpa news agency, Victoria is forecast to hit 70 per cent vaccination coverage of people over 16 on October 26, triggering the end of lockdown under the state’s roadmap before restrictions ease further at 80 per cent.
But state Premier Daniel Andrews has said he would not rule out amending the roadmap and extending restrictions if needed.
Australia, with a population of 25 million, long sought to eradicate the virus with a zero-Covid strategy, but after failing to contain several Delta variant outbreaks, has largely shifted to achieving vaccination targets as a way out of lockdown.
Australia has recorded 105,000 cases and more than 1,200 deaths since the pandemic began.
(With inputs from agencies)
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