‘Any excuse to keep you locked down’: Victoria Premier draws fire by reneging on promise to reopen Melbourne
Contrary to promises, Melbourne, which lives under some of the toughest and longest coronavirus restrictions, will not get a reprieve on Monday, Victoria state head has announced, leaving critics fuming.
Metropolitan Melbourne was supposed to see some of its lockdown restrictions lifted starting next week. The Australian city has seen its rolling two-week average Covid-19 infections drop below five, prompting the government to indicate that the situation was good enough to ease some restrictions. But despite the high hopes, Premier Daniel Andrews said during his Covid-19 update on Sunday that it would not happen.
Andrews announced that a “cautious pause” was necessary for a couple more days to process over 1,000 Covid-19 tests from an outbreak in northern Melbourne and that a rollback should not be expected until Tuesday at the earliest.
“Put simply: this is a couple of extra days that might put us weeks ahead of this virus. To not only get on top of this outbreak – but to stamp it out,” the premier said. He added it was not “a step back” and that it was necessary not to let “everything Victorians have sacrificed, everything we’ve given up, simply slip away.”
The delay was criticized by opposition politicians, business owners unhappy about the economic toll that the lockdown takes, and Victorians, who were looking forward to hearing good news from Andrews.
Michael O’Brien, the leader of the opposition in Victoria, accused the premier of moving the goalposts once again and called his decision “appalling”. The state’s prime business association, the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the premier has dealt a “shattering blow” to the economy and that the situation resembled living in a time loop, “like Groundhog Day”.
If you’re in metro Melbourne you’ve endured the pain of harsh lockdown + got the numbers below 5 a day.Now Andrews has given you nothing.He’s moved the goalposts – again.Any excuse to keep you locked down because he still hasn’t fixed contact tracing.Appalling.#springst
— Michael O’Brien (@michaelobrienmp) October 25, 2020
Andrews just said he will keep Melbourne in lockdown. This costs 1000 jobs a day, because of his contact tracing failures in the northern suburbs.Andrews promised that if we reached less than a 5 case average over 14 days, hospitality and retail would be opened. He lied. pic.twitter.com/1tjWjJdzd1
— Tim Smith MP (@TimSmithMP) October 24, 2020
Former Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said the postponement, which was announced after a spectacular reduction in new Covid-19 infections, demonstrated a “paralysis in decision-making” on the part of the Andrews government.
Vic has met the under 5 threshold which some thought was unachievable. This was a very cautious target. 6/7 of new cases are related to a known outbreak so the risk is manageable. The set reopening is gradual & safe so any delay is unnecessary. It’s paralysis in decision-making.
— Jenny Mikakos #StayHomeSaveLives (@JennyMikakos) October 24, 2020
While Melbourne will have to wait further, regional Victoria will see some easing of restrictions starting next week, Andrews also announced. Starting Wednesday, the state will see the reopening of gyms, indoor pools and food courts, provided they serve no more than 20 customers at a time.
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