Melbourne is locking down again (how can it be?) Of all the cities and states in Australia, why us? Haven’t we had enough, Universe? Maybe, we are experts at it already so it’s only natural it would happen here again? At any rate, it is happening again as of midnight tonight. Seriously, who puts a timeline on staying safe??
From what I understand (and don’t quote me on it) a returning Australian man left the mandatory hotel quarantine (after his 14 days) in Adelaide and brought the virus to Melbourne. It is believed it is the Indian variant of Covid and that he caught it whilst in quarantine. Because it is so contagious and fast moving, it has everyone very concerned. So far most states have shut their borders to us, including SA – cheeky since they basically delivered it into our state of Victoria via this one man.
From the ABC : Acting Premier James Merlino said contact tracers had identified 10,000 primary and secondary contacts linked to the outbreak. “In the last day, we’ve seen more evidence that we’re dealing with a highly infectious strain of the virus, a variant of concern which is running faster than we have ever recorded,” he said.
“The time between catching the virus and passing it on is tighter than ever so for some of those cases I’ve mentioned … the serial interval, that is, how long it takes between the onset of symptoms in the first and secondary case, is averaging just over a day.
“So unless something drastic happens, this will becoming increasingly uncontrollable.”
As a result, the government has now opened up an expanded age category eligible for the vaccination in our area. As you can imagine, the queues are long and the phone centres are impossible to get through to. Tomorrow the kids return to remote learning and we are back to Stage 3 restrictions: Face masks indoors and out, you may only leave to go to the market, the doctor, to get a vaccine, as a necessary worker and for exercise (within 5km and with only one other person.) I am grateful for a fast acting government but am worried that it’s been in the community for about 10 days now before we really knew about it. Sigh. I miss the before time.
Five Abroad 
Just stay safe. Mary had it. She lost her hearing and smell. Just started to get her smell back yesterday. Her hearing is OK now. We both got it right before we got our vaccines. It was still miserable. So stay safe. Please
Hey, you’re from Melbourne too! Hoping things will be ok for all of us and it won’t get too bad this time!
Yes, we are! Agree, fingers crossed we sort it quickly. ❤️
I’m really sorry you have to lock down again. It starts to grate after a while. Vaccination situations are really unpredictable at this point too
Hopefully we’ll have our first dose in the next week as will many adults which should start to help. I haven’t turned on the news this morning to see what the status is on the spread. I can’t stand the thought of going through this again. What a different world we live in today.
Hope you do get your shot soon. I have other friends in Australia who say the rollout has been terrible! That’s understandable. Restrictions have started lifting in my area because of the vaccination rate BUT there is criticism that it’s too soon and motivated by special interests. I’m bracing myself for another set of restrictions if these don’t work
I’ve heard same as you, how this latest outbreak occurred. Thing is, it was bound to happen. Common sense tells me that rather than automatically pressing the lockdown button yet again, we should model ourselves on the state that’s doing the best, NSW.
I think you are right – NSW has managed so far doing it differently. It’s interesting to note. I do believe the variant this time though is behaving differently and is a bit more worrisome. Hopefully our quick measures will sort it all out.
Hi Kate,
Don’t worry about this new strain. It’s being handled just fine by NSW who bring in far more Aussies than we do. We’ll catch up. And sixty five cases isn’t anything like the hundreds we had last year. It will be okay.
Victoria finally has a single QR code check in system months after the rest of the country, which is why other states are doing better than we are. We’ve had far more lockdown days than anywhere else in the country. Today I’m hearing that the two people (the reason for the latest lockdown) have proved to not have the latest variant of Covid.
There are rumours that this negative result might have been known or suspected before the lockdown was announced. I remember a time when politicians fell on their swords for less (yes I’m that old🤭). Now they brazen it out.
Sorry Kate, 6 covid people a d two
Weren’t positive
Wow, I hadn’t watched the news today – I assume that information has just come out. Interesting. Yes, the QR code thing had been pretty random up until now. Over the last week, I’ve checked in to more places than I had over the last year. Progress, I suppose.