Melbourne lockdown full#

They realized that amorphous goals of “slowing the spread” or “flattening the curve” had been ineffective in mustering public support for the stringent mitigation measures that would be necessary to contain the virus. Policymakers dreaded an endless cycle of lockdown-reopening-lockdown - exactly the situation the US finds itself in. Its case numbers were dwarfing those in every other state including New South Wales, home to the country’s other great metropolis, Sydney. In the second wave, Victoria was by far the hardest-hit state. Each state was responsible for its own response, with the federal government playing an advisory role outside of obviously national issues like foreign travel. When cases abated, some of those restrictions were eased - and, before too long, Covid-19 cases were spiking again. Once the coronavirus arrived in the spring, the country went into lockdown. Some of the Australian states also closed their borders to the others, which lowered the risk somebody might bring Covid-19 from one part of the country to another.īut the Australian epidemic has also mirrored America’s in important ways. On its worst days, Victoria saw about 700 new cases Missouri, with (very roughly) a similar population and landmass, is currently averaging more than 3,000. Its outbreak never got nearly as bad as the US’s did. Its population density is very low (though the population is concentrated on the coasts). Melbourne, the state’s capital and a city with about as many people as the greater Washington, DC, area, is now completely coronavirus-free.Īustralia enjoyed plenty of advantages over the United States in containing Covid-19.

Melbourne lockdown full#

They have seen no active cases for a full four weeks. They wanted to eliminate the virus entirely. They didn’t want to just get their Covid-19 numbers down. Local leaders set an improbable goal in the face of that challenge. In July and August, the Australian state of Victoria was going through a second Covid-19 wave.