‘Bored’ Melburnians flood shopping centres in a bid to get away from their families as they struggle to cope with six-week lockdown
- Melburnians have been ordered to stay at home amid second wave of COVID-19
- Chadstone Shopping Centre retailers say residents visit shops out of boredom
- Victoria recorded its highest daily spike of coronavirus cases on Thursday, 317
Melburnians who have been ordered to stay at home amid a second wave of coronavirus infections have flooded shopping centres due to boredom and to escape their families.
Retailers at Chadstone Shopping Centre, in Melbourne’s south-east, say they are ‘shocked’ by shoppers going against the stage three stay-at-home orders just to get out of their house.
‘We have a lot of customers who come in and do the right thing, but there are some who are walking in and saying they are bored and needed time away from their families,’ one worker told The Monash Leader.
‘I have seen police and security regularly patrolling and they’re doing a great job.’
Melburnians who have been ordered to stay at home amid a second wave of coronavirus infections have flooded shopping centres due to boredom, according to retail workers
A sign reads ‘If you have any symptoms please go home – No shopping’ at the Broadmeadows central shopping centre where drive through COVID-19 testing took place on July 2
Pictured: Shoppers walk through Chadstone Shopping Centre, in Melbourne’s south-east
Victoria is currently battling a second spike in coronavirus infections and the state recorded its highest ever daily spike on Thursday, with 317 cases.
Residents in metropolitan Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire are only allowed to leave their homes for food and supplies, receive or provide care, exercise, and study or work.
Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Rick Nugent said on Tuesday police have checked thousands of homes, businesses and public places since the stage three restrictions returned.
There’s been 546 fines issued since the stay at home directives were reintroduced, with 151 busted at vehicle checkpoints.
Premier Daniel Andrews on Thursday thanked Victorians who are following the rules but warned of complacency.
‘I’m very proud of and grateful to every Victorian who is doing the right thing. That’s the vast majority,’ he said.
‘But we’ve just got to stay the course on this. We’ve got to keep following the rules. They make sense. I know they’re challenging, I know they’re frustrating.
‘Everyone would prefer this to be a very different set of circumstances but it’s not an ordinary winter. This is not an ordinary week.
‘If we pretend it is, if we pretend it is over because we want it to be over, all we’ll be doing is spreading the virus, seeing more people in hospital and sadly more people will pass away as a result of this virus.’
The 317 new cases recorded in Victoria make it the 11th consecutive day of a triple-digit increase in the state.
There are 2,128 active cases.
Pictured: Empty rows of shops with no customers on the main road in Glenroy on July 4
Pictured: A man enters the Broadmeadows central shopping centre during the second wave of coronavirus infections in Melbourne