Melbourne, Australia has now surpassed its predecessor Buenos Aires to grab the unenviable title of the world’s most locked down city.
On Monday the city passed into its 246th day of lockdown
And the lockdown is still not over.
It is hopeful that by October 26, 70 percent of the state’s over 15’s will be fully vaccinated and that then the rules for those that are inoculated will lessen. At this point of time residents in Melbourne will have endured 260 days in lockdown since the Coronavirus Pandemic was declared in March 2020.
Whether another city in the world will overtake Melbourne’s lockdown record is yet to be seen.
The premier of Victoria, Daniel Andrews has now given up on his initial goal of zero daily cases and changed the plan to achieving vaccination in 80% of Victorian residents over the age of 15 against the virus.
Although once lauded for keeping Victorians safe, the long, seemingly never-ending lockdowns have seen approval ratings in a recent Essential Poll for Guardian Australia of the Andrews government drop by 44%.
After keeping cases relatively low, the State is now in the midst of Melbourne’s sixth lockdown in fact recording more than 1000 new infections per day.
“It’s the record nobody would want, the record no-one expected,” said Innes Willox, Australian Industry Group’s chief executive to the Today Show.
“Melbourne’s a sad, tired place at the moment.”
“The Premier’s made it clear he will extend that if he needs too. That’s not very heartening for people as we break a world record.”
“It’s not going to be a sort of snapback or another V-shaped recovery, particularly in Melbourne. It’s going to take a long time. Melbourne’s lost all of the attributes that made it strong – events, strong culture, the education sector.”
“The CBD is just sort of a graffitied wasteland. There is a lot of work to restore confidence. Business confidence is low. Consumer confidence is low. It’s going to take a huge effort to get together and really reimagine Victoria.”