Melbourne has now officially been in lockdown longer than literally any other city in the world so give yourself a bloody big pat on the back for enduring it, Melburnians.
Melbourne gained the unwanted record overnight as it bypassed Buenos Aires as the city with the most days in lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as per Time Out. The Argentine capital went through a 234-day lockdown from March 20th to November 11th, 2020, as well as having a 10-day circuit breaker lockdown between May 21st and May 31st this year.
The city has now spent 245 cumulative days under lockdown, equivalent to around two thirds of a year, which is just horrendous to contemplate. Victorians could spend a ‘grand’ total of 267 days in lockdown before restrictions are once again lifted. And Premier Daniel Andrews hasn’t ruled out the possibility of extending the restrictions should health advice deem it necessary.
One upside is that Melbourne’s lockdown seemingly worked much better than Buenos Aires’s did: Argentina suffered terribly with COVID-19, recording more than 5 million cases and 115,000 deaths. By contrast, only 1,334 people have died because of COVID-19 in Australia (Argentina has almost double the population as Oz).
The record hopefully won’t be extending for much longer though, with Melbourne’s lockdown expected to finally end once 70% of Victorians aged 16 and over are fully vaccinated. That milestone should be hit around October 26th, just a few weeks away now.
As it currently stands at the time of writing, 82% of Victorians have had at least a single dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, with more than 52% double jabbed.
So if you’re not in those numbers, get an appointment made so Melbourne doesn’t suffer the ignominy of being in lockdown for a full bloody year.
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Check out the 9News report on Melbourne’s anti-lockdown protestors:
