Covid/Australian Open: city of Melbourne confined for five days, behind closed doors from 13/02/2021

The Australian Open will continue, at the Melbourne Park site in Melbourne (AUS), behind closed doors, for at least five days from Saturday 13/02/2021, the organizers of the Grand Slam tournament Australian Tennis announced on 12/02/2021. The government of the local State of Victoria has in fact announced a five-day lockdown from 11:59 p.m. on Friday, 12/02/2021. In question, cases of Covid-19 detected in a hotel at Melbourne airport.

The Australian Open, played from 08 to 21/02/2021 at the Melbourne Park site in Melbourne, has hosted up to 30,000 spectators per day, a number which must be reduced to 25,000 in the last five days of the tournament. Originaly scheduled from 18 to 31/01/2021, the first Grand Slam tournament of the season was postponed on 16/12/2020.

“Over the 14 days we will have up to 390,000 people here in Melbourne Park, which is about 50% of the average for the past three years. It will be the most important international event with an audience that the world has seen in months," said Martin Pakula, Minister of Sport in the Victoria State Government, on 30/01/2021.