Melbourne looks as if it has rebounded from a crippling lockdown but it hasn't

From above, Melbourne appears to be on the mend after four lockdowns that effectively reduced the city to a ghost town. 

Office workers have again taken to the streets and washed away the sea of fluorescent vests that made-up the numbers during the lockdowns. 

Cafes can once again serve limited numbers of customers, who during the day pack into socially distanced seating.

As the afternoon sets in, Melbourne's remaining pubs to have survived the lockdowns serve drinks to happy customers. 

Looks can be deceiving and it is something Sydney residents ought pay more than glancing attention.

With the highly-contagious Delta strain taking hold and Sydney residents facing the prospect of and extended lockdown, this is a look into their future - and it ain't pretty. 

Melbourne had upward of 20,000 Covid cases at the height of the pandemic with hundreds of new cases a day during the second lockdown.

In August last year, Victoria recorded 725 new cases in a day, 15 deaths and 530 people in hospital - 42 in intensive care.  

On February 14 this year - the day Victoria went into its third lockdown - Victoria recorded three new case, bringing the tally of active cases to 22. 

In May - Victoria's fourth lockdown -  Melbourne had just 26 cases of the virus, which were all linked back to the same quarantine breach from South Australia. 

Before the last lockdown Melbourne could have been mistaken for making a miraculous comeback. 

The city was on the cusp of bouncing back. 

So confident the city was in the clear, the magistrates' court cleared the way for in-person hearings to resume. 

The district had been a hub of activity in a pre-Covid world. 

For a moment, it sparked back to life as trials kicked into action and workers returned to the office. 

On Collins Street - the business heart of Melbourne's CBD - workers had returned in numbers that could not be described as anything less than encouraging. 

At night, pubs pumped with the drunken, familiar voices of a population that was contemplating 'getting back to normal'.  

Then the switch was flicked, and it all went back to square one. 

Melbourne office workers have forgotten how long it's been since they've been able to work a day inside without a mask. 

On Friday, as office workers were told they could finally dump them, the city crawled to life. 

It was Groundhog Day. 

Out west, train stations from Werribee to Footscray showed the signs of a city in hiding. 

Peak hour trains were near empty, with commuters arriving well into the peak still able to find prime parking positions outside the stations.

City workers commuting from anywhere other than the originating station know all-too-well the pain of peak travel into the CBD. 

Jammed into carriages with no room to even dump a backpack, they would wait miserably locked together until the doors opened and set them free. 

At Flinders Street Station - Melbourne's main hub - and nearby Southern Cross Station, you could swing a cat getting out of the turnstiles. 

Before lockdown, you wouldn't dream of driving to and from the city everyday into the heart of Melbourne. 

Barista Sinead Brassil said Melbourne had been devastated by the constant lockdowns. 

'It's been really quiet in the city. It's been busy in all the suburbs, but the city has just been so dead,' she told Daily Mail Australia on Friday. 

'All of the little businesses on these little lanes have been really struggling and it's only just starting to pick up now. All of the office workers can work from home so I feel until they return we're all in trouble.'