MELBOURNE: The decks have been cleared for full capacity crowds at the 2022 Australian Open tennis Grand Slam and Australia’s Boxing Day cricket Test against arch-rivals England in Melbourne, as COVID-19 restrictions ease in Victoria state, officials said on Thursday.
Victoria Premier Dan Andrews said that the state was about to hit 90% vaccination, allowing long-standing restrictions to be swept aside, including capacity limits on sporting events.
The Victoria Premier said from 11:59 p.m. (1259 GMT) on Thursday, there will no longer be any caps on gatherings in the state.
Andrews said: “There are no more caps, there are no more quotients, no more rules in terms of how many people can be in different spaces.
“Whether it’s 1,00,000 at the MCG on Boxing Day or a smaller group standing up at the public bar of their local pub having a beer, this is the Covid normal that every Victorian has built.”
As per the new guidelines, spectators at either of the two sporting events need to be fully vaccinated.
Victoria Premier Dan Andrews said that the state was about to hit 90% vaccination, allowing long-standing restrictions to be swept aside, including capacity limits on sporting events.
Andrews said from 11:59 p.m. (1259 GMT) on Thursday, there will no longer be any caps on gatherings in the state.
“Whether it’s 100,000 people at the MCG on Boxing Day or a smaller group of people standing up at the … local pub, this is the Covid-normal that every Victorian has built,” he said at a media briefing.
How many spectators, if any, would be allowed into the cavernous 100,000 capacity Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) for the third Ashes Test had been up in the air.
Last year’s Boxing Day test between Australia and India had crowds capped at 30,000 per day due to the pandemic.
The last Ashes test against England at the stadium in 2017 drew a crowd of more than 88,000 on Boxing Day alone.
Australia will face Joe Root’s England at the MCG from Dec 26 during the upcoming five-Test Ashes series, which will start in Brisbane on Dec 8.
The eased restrictions will be welcomed by Australia’s major sports, which have taken significant hits to revenue due to crowd caps in Melbourne, the country’s second-largest city and Victoria state capital, through the pandemic.
The first tennis Grand Slam of 2022 is due to start on January 17 at Melbourne Park, which will also be allowed a full capacity crowd.
The last Australian Open in February was limited to 30,000 people per day — about half of Melbourne Park’s usual capacity — before all fans were banned for five days due to a snap lockdown.
