BEVERLY HILLS, February 12, (THEWILL) – After the crowd size that fell below expectations on the opening day of the Australian Open to the dismay of organisers was beginning to pick up numbers, suddenly there will be no more crowds at the Open for, at least, the next five days.
Melbourne, Australia’s second-most populous city after Sydney, will enter a five-day snap coronavirus lockdown, authorities said today, barring spectators from all in-person attendance of the games Down Under.
What was identified as a fresh COVID-19 cluster linked to one of the quarantine hotels in Melbourne, the capital of Victoria State, has spread to 13 cases as of midnight on Thursday. Authorities are in a race to quash the spread of the virus before it spirals out of control.
Tennis Australia, organisers of the Open, said in a statement: “Australian Open sessions today and tonight will continue as planned with Covid safe protocols in place.”
Daniel Andrews, the Premier of Victoria, announced the lockdown for the state. He referred to it as a “short, sharp circuit breaker” that banned public gatherings, home auctions, weddings and religious gatherings for the brief span of days.
“There will be no crowds” at sporting events in the state, Andrews said. Fans who had already bought tickets to attend different matches in the socially-distanced Park would get a refund. Crowds had already been limited to 50 percent of usual capacity for the Grand Slam.
“We must assume that there are further cases in the community than we have positive results for, and that it is moving at a velocity that has not been seen anywhere in our country over the course of these last 12 months,” Andrews told reporters.
The State of Victoria endured one of the world’s strictest and longest lockdowns of 2020 and, though by Australia’s standards the deaths from the pandemic were high, overall it had a successful rate at curbing the spread when data from across the developed world is tabulated.
Australia’s Prime Minister, Scott Morrison offered the government’s full support for Victoria’s decisions on containing the outbreak and said: “We have dealt with (outbreaks) in the last few weeks in Sydney and Brisbane and Perth, and so a proportionate response… enables tracers to be able to get on top of it and get the same successful result we have seen in other states.”
The players will continue on their own without the involvement of crowds and the intermittent applause that comes with the presence of fans on the courts. It is not immediately certain what will happen after the five-day suspension of crowds but organisers are hoping they do not have to extend the “circuit breaker” beyond that span.
The opening Grand Slam of the season in Melbourne runs from February 8 until February 21.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
