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Australia’s Melbourne to exit COVID-19 lockdown
Australia’s second largest city Melbourne will end its latest COVID-19 lockdown.The city’s 5 million residents will get a taste of freedom at 11:59 pm on Thursday, able to step outside their homes after spending two weeks inside.Although state authorities said some restrictions on travel and house gatherings would remain likely for another week.State acting Premier James Merlino delivered the news:”This is a good day, this is a good day. Everyone should be absolutely proud of what we’ve all achieved together. But we know that this isn’t over yet, and until we have widespread vaccination across Victoria and across our country.”People must still stay within 15 miles of their homes, a measure introduced by authorities to hopefully stop community transmission during the upcoming long weekend.The state of Victoria has had four lockdowns since the pandemic began, the longest more than 100 days late last year.Daily cases have remained in single digits on most days of the lockdown and cases were all linked to the highly-infectious Delta virus variant, found amongst them late last week.