Saturday 30th January 2021
Up to 30,000 spectators every day
Australian Open should be a major event
The Australian Open starts in Melbourne at the beginning of February. Despite Corona, the organizers are planning to admit up to 30,000 viewers to the games every day. So it should be the “most important international event with crowds” for many months.
Despite the corona pandemic, up to 30,000 people per day should be allowed to watch the tennis elite at the Australian Open, which begins on February 8th. The sports minister of the state of Victoria, Martin Pakula, announced on Twitter. “It will be the most significant international crowds event the world has seen in many, many months,” he added in a televised statement. The first Grand Slam of the year starts three weeks later than usual due to the pandemic. Also there are the world number one Novak Djokovic and Ashleigh Barty and the Germans Alexander Zverev and Angelique Kerber.
For the first eight days of the tournament, the capacity in Melbourne Park should be capped to 30,000 spectators per day and night, in the last six days the number should drop to 25,000 visitors per day, said Pakula. “That means that when we near the end of the tournament we will have an incredible atmosphere at the Rod Laver Arena that will not be that different from the atmosphere we have seen at all of the opens in recent years” said the minister. A total of around 390,000 people are expected. That’s about 50 percent of the average compared to the past three years, he said.
Hardly any infected in Australia
There are currently 23 people infected with the coronavirus in Victoria who are in quarantine. Only one new case has been added in the past 24 hours. Australia has come through the corona pandemic comparatively lightly. According to the Johns Hopkins University, around 28,800 infections and 909 deaths have been registered in the country with around 25 million inhabitants. Before Christmas, there had been no detected new infections at all for around seven weeks.
Strict quarantine rules therefore apply to all tennis professionals and their supervisors so that the Australian Open can begin in front of spectators on February 8th as the first Grand Slam tournament of the year.
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