Melburnians will be waking up this morning (September 23) to notch a record that probably no one in the world wants.
The Victorian city will be enduring its 235th day of lockdown since the Covid-19 pandemic began.
According to Sky News Australia, that officially makes Melbourne the city that has had the longest lockdown in the entire world.
Advert
Buenos Aires previously had the unhappy record, with the whole of Ireland and the UK not too far behind.
Melbourne is on track to open up on October 26 when the state hits 70 per cent of its population over the age of 16 vaccinated.
If that date is kept, then the city will have gone through 267 long days of lockdown.
Advert
People living in the Victorian capital have had fairly strict rules imposed on them during their half a dozen lockdowns, including limited exercise time, a nighttime curfew, only one person being allowed to do the daily shopping in a household, and a 5km limit to do everything.
While it has been a tough slog, the rules haven't been as bad in some other places in the world.
In El Salvador, people were only permitted to leave the house twice a week and those caught doing the wrong thing weren't given a fine, but were sent to containment centres.
In Wuhan, where Covid-19 was first detected, some people weren't allowed to leave their homes under any circumstances and they had to make do with whatever they already had.
Advert
In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte warned that anyone breaking the rules would be shot.
While Melburnians haven't been subjected to that level of state-imposed lockdown, they have had to put up with a lot.
They've had restrictions lifted and then reimposed within weeks, causing an untold amount of stress and anxiety for citizens and businesses.
Premier Daniel Andrews has promised that the vaccination rate will be the ticket to freedom.
Advert
"There is going to be a vaccinated economy, and you get to participate in that if you are vaccinated," Mr Andrews said.
"We're going to move to a situation where, to protect the health system, we are going to lock out people who are not vaccinated and can be," Mr Andrews said.
The government says it is in the process of developing an industry pilot program to trial the viability of a vaccine economy, where more events, facilities and services are open to people who have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
"The economy, as best it can, will operate as close to normal as possible to people who have had two doses."
Featured Image Credit: AlamyTopics: Australia