Melbourne: The Australian Open will be allowed to admit up to 30,000 fans a day, around 50 percent of the usual attendance, when the Grand Slam gets underway on February 8.
The limit will be reduced to 25,000 over the last five days of the tournament when there are fewer matches, but Victoria state sports minister Martin Pakula said the announcement would ensure some of the biggest crowds for a sporting event since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pakula said the decision was a testament to the job the people of Victoria had done in containing the new coronavirus after enduring one of the longest and strictest lockdowns in the world.
It has been 24 days since Victoria reported a locally acquired COVID-19 infection, while Australia as a whole posted a 13th straight day without a community case on Saturday.
More than 1,000 people, players and their entourages, were obliged to undergo 14 days of quarantine on their arrival in Australia ahead of the year’s first Grand Slam.
Most were allowed out of their rooms for up to five hours a day for training and gym work, but 72 players remained in strict lockdown after fellow passengers on their flights to Australia tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19.
Local health authorities said on Saturday they were still managing five active COVID-19 cases connected to the tennis, one of them a player.
