Dear Hon Daniel Andrews MP, Premier of Victoria,

Dear Professor Brett Sutton, Chief Health Officer (Victoria),

We, a group of residents of the Citygate complex (in Melbourne CBD), need your help to allow us to reduce the spread of COVID-19, by reopening outdoor sport facilities in private buildings (to allow Victorians to exercise without exiting their building, therefore to minimise the movement of and contact between individuals within the community).

Let me explain : Being locked down with my husband and 4 kids (aged 15 years to 2 months old) is more and more difficult (as it may be for most Victorian families), mostly because after our 9 years old son finishes remote learning, he’s moving a lot in our apartment and is very noisy while his father and 2 teenage sisters have to work every afternoon. For that reason, I want my son to exercise 2 hours a day, for our family's wellbeing and mental health.

In 2020, my son and husband were playing tennis together almost everyday as our complex propose an outdoor tennis court, open during Victoria’s 1st and 2nd lockdown. But since 2021, outdoor tennis court facilities are always closed during lockdowns. As he cannot exercise in our outdoor tennis court, I am now forced to bring my son to exercise outdoor in public parks, surrounded by dozens of strangers (are they vaccinated ? will they test positive to COVID 19 the day after ? Maybe yes). I am not sure forcing my son to exit our building to exercise is helping to reduce the spread of COVID-19, if he can instead play tennis with his fully vaccinated father in our outdoor tennis court, with nobody around them.

Some other kids in the building were used to ride their bicycle alone in the enclosed tennis court. Some others were playing soccer or down ball with only one neighbour or a sibling in the enclosed tennis court. Now, all of them have to exit our building to exercise in public parks,… therefore they are inevitably in contact with other individuals they don’t know.

Every time I bring my son out to exercise, I see kids breaching social distancing, without realising it :

• once, a toddler approached me to show me his small car, 
• another time a child walking around ran to play soccer with my son who was playing with a neighbour,
• when my son is playing soccer in the garden, sometimes he has to approach some people to take back his soccer ball,…

Forcing children to go out to exercise will inevitably tempt other children to gather as it’s in kids nature to socialise and play with other children : It’s not a surprise to see more and more children testing positive to COVID-19, as current restrictions force children who’d be happy to exercise with relatives in outdoor sport facilities in their complex, to exercise in public parks surrounded by many other individuals.

That’s why we believe that closing outdoor sport facilities in private buildings can only increase the spread of COVID-19 as it will force Victorians kids to INCREASE the movement and contact between individuals within the community, as instead of exercising alone, or with their relatives in an enclosed sport facility in their building with nobody around them, they have to go out, surrounded by strangers, and occasionally breach social distancing even if they don’t mean to.

For that reason I sent you a few emails, and also to other Victorian government services. I received yesterday an answer, mentioning : “The recent COVID-19 outbreak is associated with the highly infectious Delta variant. The intent of the restriction is to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by minimising the movement of and contact between individuals within the community.” (I precise that I am not the one who put a few words of this sentence in bold)  : I am glad the government agrees, like us, that it’s better to MINIMISE the movement of and contact between individuals within the community to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

That’s why, Dear Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, Dear Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton, we hereby ask you to help us reduce the spread of COVID-19 by reopening EVERY OUTDOOR SPORT FACILITY IN PRIVATE BUILDINGS, to allow Victorians to exercise without exiting their building, therefore to minimise the movement of and contact between individuals within the community.

P.S : I precise that my message mainly focuses on a specific outdoor sport facility (the tennis court), because during winter it was the only outdoor sport facility of our complex residents were using, but we also have an outdoor swimming pool : as it seems that restrictions will be in place for a long time, certainly including summer, reopening the swimming pool to allow families to exercise without exiting the complex would be great too !