So on the 8th of July Melburnians and Mitchell shire were put back into stage 3 restrictions in Melbourne for 6 weeks. Initially there were hotspot suburbs that were locked down due to several outbreaks across around 10 suburbs. Mostly stretching from Keilor through the NW suburbs extending to Donnybrook and Kalkallo. Then an outbreak started in the commission flats in Flemington. A huge issue due to the high density living conditions and many people with English as a second language. So they locked 9 towers down, completely. Nobody allowed out of their flats. At all. On the 6th July, it was announced that the NSW border would be closed off to Victorians for the first time in over 100 years. 100 years! It wasn't long before the rest of the country followed suit. So here we are in stage 3, harder than before. We are not allowed to leave our suburb unless it's for work or care giving, we have to wear facemasks in public from Thursday when out in public. Even taking the dog for a walk. We simply have to throw everything at this to try and stop the transmission of this deadly virus. Last time I posted a lockdown post, AU cases were around 7000. Now they are at 12000 (the photos are yesterday's figures and we had 275 new cases overnight). And now it's looking like Sydney is following in our footsteps, I sincerely hope that they can keep theirs under control. I fear if they don't, that the entire nation will end up being in the same boat as us. This time around I can't work. It's not only riskier but who wants headshots in a facemask! And Paul (hubby) isn't working either. So we are all at home together except for Chloe who works at ALDI. That is currently my biggest concern, that my daughter is working in amongst the general public. The stories she has told us of how people just don't care, is awful. When did we stop caring for our fellow Aussies? They are saying that it is looking like the reason our outbreak occurred was because the security guards patrolling returned quarantined travellers, were taking them out shopping, having sex with them and God only knows what else. So a few selfish pigs are the cause of this, 1000's sick, people dying and people going broke because they can't work, businesses failing. I hope they can't bloody well sleep at night.Then to make things worse we had an infected person go to a large family cultural gathering. That person knew that they were infected and needed to be in isolation. And we had a superspreader in the north west. Perfect recipe for the virus.
Anyhow, I'm finding this lockdown harder. I was really enjoying getting back into a bit of work and now I'm just at home 24/7. I have been keeping up my walk/running though and that is great for my headspace. But it's pretty scary and we really have no end in sight. First time around they suggested 6 months.....well it's almost 6 months and it's just got a whole lot worse. Now they are talking in terms of years, not months. We'll get there, we have no choice but right now it's bloody hard going.
