The Australian city of Melbourne is reportedly gearing up to lift the world’s longest stay-at-home orders, backed by increasing rate of vaccinations in the state of Victoria. The city has been under lockdown for nearly 262 days since March 2020.

While announcing the end of the lockdown, Victoria Premier, Daniel Andrews stated that it was a great day and Victorians need to be proud of what they have achieved. He added that initially hospitality venues and some businesses will be allowed to reopen with their capacity heavily restricted.

However, these conditions will be gradually eased out with the reopening of many retailer stores once 80% of the Victorians are completely vaccinated, which is expected to be completed by November 5 at the latest, he added.

Presently, Australia has over 143,000 coronavirus cases with 1,543 deaths which is quite low as compared to other developed countries.

Victoria had reported 1,838 new cases of coronavirus and seven deaths on Sunday. The double vaccination rate, which was 68% as of 17^th October, is estimated to reach nearly 70% by the end of this week.

Interestingly, Australia has finally opted to abandon its COVID-zero strategy, and moved towards co-existing with the virus by conducting extensive vaccination drives, as the Delta Variant has proved to be too contagious to be suppressed by stringent lockdowns.

Sources claim that Australia will allow quarantine free travel from New Zealand’s South Island as there is no outbreak in that region. Apparently, the government is also in talks with Singapore about lifting travel restrictions for fully vaccinated passengers from both nations.

Notably, neighboring nation New Zealand is also learning to live with the virus by accelerating its vaccination rates. The country inoculated around 2.5% of the masses on 16^th October as a part of the government led-vaccination drive.

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https://indianexpress.com/article/world/melbourne-covid-19-lockdowns-vaccinations-rise-7576193/