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Australian Open allow up to 30,000 spectators a day

2021-01-30T08:07:56.235Z


Anyone who has lived in corona lockdown for weeks thinks this number is unbelievable: The organizers of the Australian Open are expecting hundreds of thousands of fans who will be in Melbourne. How is that possible?


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Before the Australian Open, a show tournament was held in Adelaide with around 4000 spectators

Photo: Kelly Barnes / dpa

At the Australian Open, up to 30,000 people per day should be allowed to watch the tennis elite play.

This was announced by the State of Victoria Sports Minister Martin Pakula on Twitter on Saturday.

These visitor numbers are possible because the number of corona cases in Australia is relatively low.

"It will be the most significant international crowds event the world has seen in many, many months," Pakula said on television.

The first Grand Slam of the year starts three weeks later than usual on February 8th due to the corona pandemic.

Also there are the world number one Novak Djokovic and Ashleigh Barty and the Germans Alexander Zverev and Angelique Kerber.

On Friday, Djokovic, among others, had played a show tournament in Adelaide in front of about 4,000 spectators.

more on the subject

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For the first eight days of the Australian Open, 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.

"This means that when we near the end of the tournament we will have an incredible atmosphere in the Rod Laver Arena that will not be so different from the atmosphere we have experienced at all 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.

Corona case numbers in Australia relatively low

In Australia, the number of corona cases is very low compared to, for example, Germany.

Australia counted six new corona cases on Friday, Germany around 12,800 new cases.

There are currently 23 people infected with the coronavirus who are in quarantine in the state of Victoria, where Melbourne is located.

Only one new case has been added in the past 24 hours.

Australia has so far gotten through the corona pandemic relatively 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.

After arriving in Australia in early January, more than 1,000 people, including tennis professionals and supervisors, were quarantined for 14 days.

This now ends for many professionals, so that they can now train normally again.

Djokovic and the Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut complained about the quarantine measures.

Other players showed understanding for the measures.

Icon: The mirror

ptz / dpa

Source: spiegel

All sports articles on 2021-01-30

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