Pressure is building on Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews to significantly ease restrictions this weekend as the state records its 99th day in lockdown.
It comes as Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt says Victoria no longer qualifies as a hotspot under national standards.
The minister says Victoria has met the national threshold of having a rolling 14-day average of fewer than 10 cases per day.
Federal Treasurer Mr Frydenberg called on Mr Andrews to to “give people back their freedom”, declaring 'enough is enough'.
“My message to Daniel Andrews is to get on with it,” Mr Frydenberg told the Today show.
“Stop stringing people along and give them an opportunity to get about their daily normal lives in a COVIDSafe way.”
The World Health Organisation is now urging governments worldwide to stop using lockdowns as their primary method of controlling the spread of COVID-19.
The World Health Organization is calling on nations to stop leaning on economic lockdowns as a weapon to slow the spread of coronavirus, marking a significant pivot for the organization that once applauded such restrictions during the early part of the pandemic.
Lockdowns are doubling poverty rates and should not be used as a primary means of controlling the virus, according to WHO envoy Dr. David Nabarro.
A group of concerned doctors is also calling for Victoria’s coronavirus lockdown to end immediately.
In an open letter to Premier Daniel Andrews, 500 medical experts argue that the state government’s response to COVID-19 is causing severe harm, a spike in mental health issues and a worrying decline in tests for medical conditions like cancer and chest pain.
A bus plastered with signs calling on Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews to be sacked is motoring about Melbourne in protest of Stage Four lockdown.
The large coach was spotted on Tuesday driving past Victorian Parliament House on Spring Street where the premier holds his daily press conferences.
The protest comes hot on the heels of an impassioned plea by federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg for the premier to release Victorians from their lockdown hell.
Across Melbourne, signs of unrest among the community continue to emerge, with a banner spread across Kings Way - a main Melbourne arterial - calling the lockdown a 'Dan-made Disaster'.
Similar placards and posters have been popping up along roadsides, with people wearing protest t-shirts and plastering their cars with stickers calling on Mr Andrews to end the lockdown.
One person took to the skies in a plane and flew a banner across Port Phillip Bay calling on the premier to be sacked.
