Home to 5 million people, Australia’s second-biggest city, Melbourne has been in lockdown since early July after a spike of Covid-19 infections that began in hotels where people were in quarantine after arriving from abroad.
From midnight Tuesday into Wednesday, Lockdown orders for Melbourne’s residents will be lifted, while restaurants, beauty salons and retail stores will be permitted to throw open their doors to customers.
“This has been a very difficult year. And Victorians have gien a lot and I’m proud of every single one of them,” he told reporters in Melbourne.
“Now is the time to open up,” added Andrews. “We’ve been able to bring this under control, a day of zero cases is an amazing achievement.”
Social media users declared the return to zero new cases “Donut Day”, with the hashtag trending as some Twitter users posted selfies with the treats in celebration.
Melbourne became the epicentre of the country’s second wave, with new daily cases rising above 700 in August when the rest of Australia was already rolling back virus restrictions. The rest of Victoria state is already enjoying fewer restrictions, with gyms set to reopen and outdoor live music to resume from Tuesday.
Pressure has been mounting for weeks on state authorities to allow the city more freedoms, with a litany of rules remaining in place as they took a cautious approach to reopening despite the falling number of cases.
Restrictions on travel between Melbourne and regional Victoria will be lifted from November 8, with a 25-kilometre (15-mile) travel radius.
The state remains cut off from the rest of Australia, which also maintains strict controls on international borders to prevent transmission of the virus from overseas.
In a population of 25 million, Australia has been successful in containing the spread of the corona virus, with about 27,500 cases and 905 deaths.