Victoria has recorded just 14 cases of coronavirus overnight, down from a high of more than 700 at the peak of the second wave. The 14 day rolling average for metropolitan Melbourne is now 36.2 cases, putting the state in a strong position for the next stage of loosening lockdown restrictions.
It’s been an awful, life defining experience for many as they grapple with unemployment, underemployment and the threat of disease.
Melbourne in particular has been burdened with what is ostensibly a warlike curfew and unprecedented constraints on movement.
The lockdown has smashed businesses, forced cruel limitations on the young and exposed Australia’s second most populous state to national ridicule.
So should we be appreciative of this result?
In some ways yes, in some ways no.
The government has clearly bungled the hotel quarantine system and effectively engineered by accident the second wave.
The evidence for the curfew and the lockdown road map is highly suspect.
But at the same time, it has never made a lot of sense to rush out of lockdown when the second wave tactics were actually working.
The drop to 14 cases reported today is evidence that despite all the mistakes, Victoria is finally getting somewhere.
The path ahead will be complicated but it is essential that the state doesn’t get lulled into a European-style next generation viral wave fuelled by complacency.
The warm weather on Saturday showed the extent to which millions of people have had enough.
Masks are slipping, people are gathering in larger numbers and questions are being raised about police tactics.
There is a political element to all this as well but on Sunday morning it just feels like the politics can wait for a couple of hours.
The job’s not done but we are a giant step closer to getting the outcome the country has been looking for.
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The lowest number of new coronavirus cases in months will be embraced by millions of Victorians pushed to the brink of exhaustion by one of the world’s toughest lockdown frameworks.