MELBOURNE (AUSTRALIA) – After a strict four-month lockdown, shops, restaurants and hotels in Melbourne, the capital of Victoria state in Australia, were allowed to reopen for business on Wednesday. Happy patrons could be seen enjoying alfresco dining and shopkeepers hope to have big sales to compensate for the loss of revenue.
The second most populous city in the country was the epicentre of coronavirus infections. But the strict lockdown brought an end to a second wave of infections. There were only two new cases and two fatalities overnight.
“Around 180,000 workers can return to work on site. That is an achievement that every single Victorian should be proud of,” said state premier Daniel Andrews during a briefing.
“We all have to follow the rules, to protect staff, to protect customers, to protect this fragile thing that we have built…So we can have the Christmas we have been looking forward to, with the people we have missed the most.”
On Melbourne’s Carlisle St, which is located in the dining district of Prahran, customers were seated outdoors, sipping coffee and enjoying their brunch of smashed avocado and eggs on toast.
Las Chicas restaurant sported an outdoor sign, inviting experienced barista and floor staff to drop in a resume.
“It’s quite a sunny day here in Melbourne. It’s not over yet, but I’m pretty excited about things opening up again,” said Ben Israelson, a 22-year-old student, who was enjoying coffee with a friend.
He lost his job as a part-time hearing aid salesman during the pandemic in March. However, he is optimistic of finding a new job.
On the same street, a few shops away, salon and retail store Beautyologist director Sia Psicharis said she was preparing for a heavy day of retail sales, adding that eyebrow waxing and laser hair removal would begin from Friday onwards. Other salons in the city opened on Wednesday.
During the seven-month-long closure, she invested in staff training on skin treatment as well as Australian beauty brands with government assistance. She also topped up their salaries.
“It was sink or swim, we put all our efforts into our social media and our ecommerce,” she said. “Now, I’m feeling really excited, optimistic, can’t wait to get into it. We have got Christmas coming up so it’s an exciting time.”
Across the city, salons and restaurants have to enforce strict social distancing norms and cap the number of patrons at 10 indoors and 50 outdoors. However, this is not feasible for some businesses, forcing them to close.
Among the cafes, bakeries, and barbers on the street, one can also sport vacant shops with ‘for lease’ signs displayed in front of them.
There were eight new cases on Wednesday in New South Wales, which is the most populous state and seven of them were overseas travellers undergoing hotel quarantine and the other was local. Queensland marked two new cases, bringing the national tally to 27,552.