Australian Open ticket limits imposed as COVID cases rise

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Limits on ticket gross sales have been launched for the Australian Open due to surging COVID-19 instances 4 days earlier than the primary tennis main of 2022 is ready to start.

The Victoria state authorities introduced Thursday that ticket gross sales for Australian Open will probably be capped at 50% for any periods that haven't already bought to that stage.

All tickets already bought will stay legitimate, the assertion mentioned, with no modifications or cancellations anticipated.

The event begins Monday at Melbourne Park and the ultimate is ready for Jan. 30.

Face masks will probably be obligatory and density limits will probably be imposed on indoor hospitality areas. It had already been mandated that each one spectators have to be totally vaccinated in opposition to the coronavirus.

“As COVID-19 hospitalizations and instances proceed to rise in Victoria, these mitigation methods are proportionate and designed to help in limiting the unfold,“ the federal government mentioned in an announcement.

Australian Open organizers had been hoping to return to capability crowds for this 12 months’s event after restrictions have been imposed in 2021, together with motion restrictions between sections of Melbourne Park and days when no followers have been allowed on website.

However the omicron variant of the coronavirus has swept throughout Australia in latest weeks regardless of the nation’s excessive vaccination price and strict border insurance policies that stored it largely remoted through the pandemic.

The amendments to the event’s so-called COVIDSafe occasion plan have been imposed on a day when Victoria state reported 25 deaths and 37,169 new COVID-19 instances, growing the state’s complete energetic instances to 221,726.

Earlier than the pandemic, the 2020 Australian Open attracted 812,714 spectators throughout 14 days.

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