Covid-19: Thousands protest in Australia against restrictions
Thousands of people demonstrated peacefully today (4) in front of Parliament in the Australian city of Melbourne to demand the removal of the covid-19 pandemic laws.
The city overcame its last wave of infections and deaths in October and is trying to get back to normal, while penalizing people who chose not to get the covid-19 vaccine.
This week, the government approved a set of measures designed to replace the state of emergency, in force since March 2020, and which expire on December 15, which allows the regional government to implement restrictions to fight the pandemic.
Among the measures are restrictions on movement and entry into companies for unvaccinated people and mandatory vaccinations for workers in a large number of sectors.
The protesters, who have the of a few ultra-conservative politicians, demand the lifting of all restrictions, where more than 91% of the approximately 5 million inhabitants are fully vaccinated. However, in the state of New South Wales, whose capital is Sydney, health authorities are closely monitoring the evolution of confirmed cases of the Ômicron variant.
Thirteen people have already been infected by the new variant, including at least one person through local transmission.
Last Monday (29), the Australian authorities postponed the partial opening of the borders to vaccinated workers and foreign students until December 15, after having detected the first cases of Ômicron.
Text translated using artificial intelligence.
