Hairdressers, gyms, cafés and bars have been reopened in Australia after a three-month long lockdown.
Some businesses opened at midnight due to demand from people impatient to enjoy their freedom after 107 days in lockdown.
Sydney had been earmarked to open the Monday after 70% of the New South Wales state population aged 16 and older were fully vaccinated.
Most restrictions have now been eased for fully vaccinated people in Australia.
The Lord Gladstone Hotel, an inner city pub, was doing a roaring lunch trade after months of limited trading and takeaway-only options.
“We’re stoked to be back, we’re having the best Monday in months, even before Covid,” Pat Blake, the pub’s licensee, told the BBC.
“People are just ready to come back and sit down for a schooie [beer], see their friends, be somewhere there’s always music playing,” he said.
“The kitchen is pumping. I had forgotten about the pub smells. As soon as the fryers turned on it was really nostalgic.”
The move came after 18-month closure. Citizens were not able to travel overseas without permission and thousands of Australians left stranded abroad.
Australia has closed its borders since the pandemic outbreak in March 2020.
The decision was the world’s strictest border rules.
Australia has recorded more than 1,300 deaths from Covid-19 and more than 107,000 cases of infection.
‘Most Serious Public Health Risk’
Last month, Australia’s capital had facing its ‘most serious public health risk,’ after detecting the first case of community transmission.
A total lockdown went into effect across Canberra for a whole week.
The announcement came after reporting its first locally acquired case of COVID-19 in more than a year.
The country’s biggest cities, Melbourne and Sydney, are already under hard lockdowns.
