The Australian Open will continue without crowds from Saturday after Victoria was put into a snap five-day hard lockdown after a surge of COVID-19 cases.
Victorian Premier Dan Andrews announced on Friday the state would go into stage-four restrictions from 11.59pm Friday until 11.59pm Wednesday as a “circuit breaker”.
The tournament is close to the halfway point, with some players already through to the fourth round, and is due to conclude on Sunday, 21 February with the finals of the mixed doubles and men’s singles.
Mr Andrews said crowds would not be permitted at Melbourne Park for the next five days.
“Any large or small professional sport events, they will function essentially as a workplace but they will not function as an entertainment event as there will be no crowds,” Mr Andrews said on Friday.
“The workforce will be the minimum that is needed in order for that to be COVID safe.”
The premier said tennis players were not considered “essential workers” but the nature of their profession meant they could not work from home.
“If you can work from home you must,” Mr Andrews said.
“That’s their workplace.
“If it wasn’t just for five days things might have been different.”
He said the current infection – of the highly contagious UK variant of the virus – was not linked to the tennis and there was no advice to cancel it.
“I don’t have advice to cancel the event on the basis that it is unsafe, I just don’t have that,” he said.
“This case has got nothing to do with that event, this case is a different matter.”
Tennis Australia boss Craig Tiley is due to address the media on Friday afternoon.
The event has already suffered a significant financial hit with crowds reduced to 30 per cent capacity.
Just 76,213 had attended in the first four days compared to a record 299,156 at the same point in 2020.
With a number of high-profile matches scheduled for Friday night Mr Andrews urged people to “use good judgement” and not go out, even though the lockdown will not come into effect until midnight.
He said that Mr Tiley and Australian Open organisers would address whether fans would need to exit early so they could be home by the lockdown deadline.
“I hope people will use common sense and good judgment and perhaps not go out tonight, as they had planned to do,” Mr Andrews said.
“What we are going to do is let the event come back … with exactly the operational details of some of that stuff … in terms of how the tennis is going to comply and the very localised things they are going to do, I will let them speak to that.”
People in Australia must stay at least 1.5 metres away from others. Check your jurisdiction’s restrictions on gathering limits. If you are experiencing cold or flu symptoms, stay home and arrange a test by calling your doctor or contact the Coronavirus Health Information Hotline on 1800 020 080. News and information is available in 63 languages at sbs.com.au/coronavirus.
Please check the relevant guidelines for your state or territory: NSW, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Northern Territory, ACT, Tasmania.
