COVID and the Australian Open
Currently, in Australia, there are about 5 cases of COVID-19 a day! I would consider that a win, they were able to control the situation perfectly. This is what made it possible for people to see the semi-finals and finals live! This didn’t happen for a long time but now it was possible. Obviously, the crowds are smaller but at least there was a crowd.
They would admit around 7,000 people in each event which is amazing during the current world situation.
The winners of this tournament were: Novak Djokovic and Noami Osaka, both were pleased to have a crowd back because let’s be real, sports are not the same without crowds. Due to the low number of cases, the COVID vaccine is rejected by many people in Australia which was shown in the men’s final award ceremony. Fans started booing when the tennis official talked about the global vaccine in Australia. Many of them seem upset and unsure about taking the vaccine.
There are around 40 active cases in Australia which makes it one of the nations that best handled the situation and we could see this by the uproaring crowds that supported the players in this grand slam that once had around 800,000 people watching the finals live!