The Washington Post’s Tuesday morning print edition featured a photograph of heavily armed Victoria Police officers in riot gear among the fruit and vegetable stalls at the Queen Victoria Market.
The image was accompanied by the headline: “Australia’s virus ‘dictator’ still wins hearts.”
The story appeared online too, calling Victoria’s COVID-19 stay-at-home rules part of a “drastic lockdown” among “the most stringent pandemic control measures on Earth”.
It noted that Melbourne’s five million residents have been “confined indoors for 115 days, longer than the 92-day lockdown in Manila, 76 days in Wuhan, China, 58 days in Italy and 33 days across New Zealand”.
“In Melbourne, public life has essentially come to a halt. Schools are shuttered. Roads are empty,” the article read. “The only shops open are gas stations, supermarkets and drugstores.”
The last part is not strictly accurate. Cafes and restaurants remain open for takeaway, as do smaller milk bars and convenience stores.
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But the gist of the story is that Victorians are being subjected to conditions unlike anywhere else in the world.
It mentions that Premier Dan Andrews, who on Thursday saw daily COVID-19 cases drop to their lowest number in 13 weeks, “stoically explains his position and reasoning every day in news conferences that have become surprise television ratings hits”.
The world is watching as Mr Andrews fights off attempts to bring him down. The Victorian Opposition filed a no confidence motion in the Premier on Thursday, but early signs are that a vote next month will back the Premier, who already holds a clear majority in the Lower House.
In recent weeks, articles have been written about Victoria’s approach by CNN, The New York Times, BBC, Bloomberg, NBC and by smaller publications like the Las Vegas Sun.
The BBC this week focused on the protests that saw police clash with members of the public for a second weekend running.
“While the entire state of Victoria has been in lockdown since early July, Melbourne – the state’s capital – has been under tighter restrictions,” the BBC wrote.
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“Last weekend, coronavirus conspiracy theorists held “Freedom Day” events across Australia to protest against what they labelled the country’s “overblown” response to the pandemic.
Bloomberg looked into the “jobless surge” in Victoria as workers were driven from workplaces by the shuttering of several industries.
“Victorian household spending is now down 30 per cent year-to-date, from flat mid-July, even as Australia-wide it has declined 3 per cent” Bloomberg wrote.
NBC reported on the “surreal” nature of military members being tasked with knocking on Melburnians’ doors during lockdown.
“They are living under some of the most draconian lockdown restrictions in the world,” NBC wrote.
“And any hope people had of returning to something like normality has been abandoned.”
The New York Times explored the deepening of “hotspot contact tracing”.
“The Victoria outbreak – it now accounts for about 75 per cent of Australia’s nearly 26,400 cases and 90 per cent of its 770 deaths – has brought the most visible rift between a state government and Australia’s Federal Government over the country’s handling of the pandemic, which has included an emergency Cabinet of leaders from both levels of government,” the Times article read.
CNN wrote that Melbourne would “remain locked down” despite a drop in cases.
“The Australian city of Melbourne will remain on a strict “stage 4” lockdown until at least September 28, despite the daily average number of new COVID-19 cases dropping into double-digits,” the story read.
And the Las Vegas Sun wrote that Melbourne’s lockdown was causing a rift between police and the public.
“The Melbourne restrictions, including a night curfew, were put in place in an attempt to reduce a huge spike in infections and deaths.”
As Victoria recorded just 28 new cases on Thursday, marking the lowest daily increase in COVID-19 cases since June 24, the Premier thanked the people.
“This strategy is working, these numbers are falling and this is exactly what we have to do, stay the course, get these numbers low, keep them low,” he told reporters on Thursday morning.
“The trend is with us.”
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMipwFodHRwczovL3d3dy5uZXdzLmNvbS5hdS9uYXRpb25hbC92aWN0b3JpYS9uZXdzL3dhc2hpbmd0b24tcG9zdC1oZWFkbGluZS1kZWNsYXJlcy1kaWN0YXRvci1kYW4taGFzLWVuZm9yY2VkLWRyYXN0aWMtbG9ja2Rvd24vbmV3cy1zdG9yeS8zZmM5Yjc3NzY1MjVkODNlOTdhZGJhYmM1NTUzMWIzONIBpwFodHRwczovL2FtcC5uZXdzLmNvbS5hdS9uYXRpb25hbC92aWN0b3JpYS9uZXdzL3dhc2hpbmd0b24tcG9zdC1oZWFkbGluZS1kZWNsYXJlcy1kaWN0YXRvci1kYW4taGFzLWVuZm9yY2VkLWRyYXN0aWMtbG9ja2Rvd24vbmV3cy1zdG9yeS8zZmM5Yjc3NzY1MjVkODNlOTdhZGJhYmM1NTUzMWIzOA?oc=5
2020-09-17 15:20:33Z
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