Anyone else in South Australia? New lockdown - no exercise outside the house alloed

[bluetongue]

I must admit I was shocked at how strict this lockdown is. Most of it I can live with but I must admit I’m struggling that we’re not allowed to leave the house apart from grocery shopping - even for exercise or dog walking. Yes, they’ve told us it’s only for six days but it’s hard to know who to believe. I’m not sure I feel comfortable with this level of restriction.

The government is disappointed with the panic buying but what do they expect when we can now be stopped and questioned by Police any time we leave the house?

Personally I'm horrified by this. As other posters have said, these measures/restrictions are far more scary than Covid.

It really isn't.

You underestimate how relaxed we are as a state. No one here is frothing. It's six days, we'll be fine. I went to the supermarket and the bottle o earlier. Took my dog into the front yard, threw a ball around.

Last lockdown neighbours set up their deck chairs all down the street to drink together. I imagine this is partly why there's a 'no exercise' rule. That and they probably couldn't close the playgrounds in time.

There was concern the pizza bar exposed thousands of people and they couldn't contact trace everyone quick enough. The family who initially spread it were in the community for quite some time.

It was always going to come back, this probably won't be the last lockdown. I have faith in our local government that they can handle it and acting quickly means they won't ever let it get out of control.

Compared to the absolute shit show that my UK family is having to live through

Not sure what part of the UK your family are in, but I am not living through a shitshow.

And I'm not worked up, I just wonder why it's necessary to stop people going outside when there is very little evidence of transmission outside. Especially in the summer.

The majority of people have gardens. Housing is very different to the uk.

Australia’s quarantine system is horrible if you have to go through it. $3000 to stay in an airless dirty room, paying $60 a day to be fed airline economy meals. If you have children with SEN or serious food allergies - tough. It is in no way any type of holiday or relaxing experience.

The one thing Australia did so well was early testing and enforcing penalties. The testing rate per head of population back in April & May was huge in Australia. The U.K. refuses to fine people for not complying with lockdown rules so there’s limited downside to not following them, whereas Australia has jailed a few people.

I live in the SW of the uk and its fine here. You may think its a shit show but not once have we been confined to our houses and told not to leave.

@echt

Aren’t you the one who started the support thread for bereaved spouses

I have no idea what you're on about. Or its relevance to this thread.

Well, if it was you, anyone who lost a spouse to suicide in lockdown shouldn’t post there.

Plus I thought you’d have a bit more compassion.

Clearly I have more to learn about how nasty humans can be in the face of a virus with... a really low fatality rate.

@MrsMiaWallis

I live in the SW of the uk and its fine here. You may think its a shit show but not once have we been confined to our houses and told not to leave.

Australia sets a terrifying example, don’t put it past government to do this.

Australia are working on a completely different policy to the UK. They are looking at eradication, hence stamping out any cases of community transmission through a short, strict lockdown. People are more likely to accept a short dose of this in the likelihood that they can then return to pretty much normal daily living. I'm not in Australia but I'm sure the majority of those living there would prefer a short, sharp total lockdown than the ongoing restrictions in the UK, which may be lighter but still impact massively on daily life and look like continuing for an unknown length of time.

So are Australia ever going to let tourists back in? Clearly not. Good luck with that.

My folks are in NI, and have been practically confined to the house since March. My cousin works in the hospital in Derry, she is on her knees. They’d much prefer to be here. And lockdown worked here because we caught it early. Victoria peaked at over 700 cases a day, they have had zero cases a day for three weeks now. Lockdown in the U.K. has been different to here, for a start you had much more cases to begin with. Don’t feel sorry for us, Adelaide will be fine in a few weeks, just like Melbourne. Life here is good, Melbourne did it tough but is now safe again. I certainly know where I’d rather be,just wish my family and friends could join me.

As for tourism, it will re open as soon as it’s safe. Everyone here is holidaying at home, and it’s a very rich country that can afford to do without foreign tourism for a while. I’m in WA, population about 2.5 million. We’ve had about 700 cases in total and nine deaths, and you really think the U.K. way is better? I beg to differ.

@alwayscrashinginthesamecar1

My folks are in NI, and have been practically confined to the house since March. My cousin works in the hospital in Derry, she is on her knees. They’d much prefer to be here. And lockdown worked here because we caught it early. Victoria peaked at over 700 cases a day, they have had zero cases a day for three weeks now. Lockdown in the U.K. has been different to here, for a start you had much more cases to begin with. Don’t feel sorry for us, Adelaide will be fine in a few weeks, just like Melbourne. Life here is good, Melbourne did it tough but is now safe again. I certainly know where I’d rather be,just wish my family and friends could join me.

As for tourism, it will re open as soon as it’s safe. Everyone here is holidaying at home, and it’s a very rich country that can afford to do without foreign tourism for a while. I’m in WA, population about 2.5 million. We’ve had about 700 cases in total and nine deaths, and you really think the U.K. way is better? I beg to differ.

Not better, but Aus is hardly an international hub so its not surprising that youve been able to close the doors. Hopefully for you there will be a vaccine soon and you can think globally again soon.

Being confined to your house sounds awful.

@MrsMiaWallis

I live in the SW of the uk and its fine here. You may think its a shit show but not once have we been confined to our houses and told not to leave.

Exactly. It's a shitshow if you work in hospitality and events (and to a lesser extent non-essential retail, although it was anyway due to the rise of online shopping) but I'm fortunate enough not to be adversely affected.

It's worse for my son who has his 18th birthday during this lockdown and without covid would probably have passed his driving test by now, too. But he will get over both of those things and there will have been teens the world over affected in a similar way, not just in the UK.

Not sure why someone in NI has been confined to their house since March - their lockdown was eased before ours, although it was reimposed before ours, too.

Not being allowed out for exercise it's awful. First lockdown in Spain was like that, we were in house arrest for 48 days... but at least that worked extremelly well for Spain... as we all know.

Not being allowed out for exercise is based on zero scientific justification, especially in rural areas. It's simply "being seen to be stern with the population virus".

Complete bullshit.

Well since you ask, they have been practically confined to the house because they are shielding my stepdad.and they are frightened. They go out for socially distanced walks but that’s about it. They would rather be here, where they could lead a normal life, going out, shopping, socialising etc. Their area in NI had the highest daily cases in the U.K. recently, so I think they are right to be cautious.

And of course it’s not the same here as they U.K., we are much more remote here which has given us a massive advantage. I’m not saying that the approach they took here would have worked for the U.K. at all. Apart from anything it hit Eorope a few weeks before here, so we had time to see what was happening elsewhere and prepare, which was sheer luck. Same as NZ. Believe me, we are horrified and worried about what’s happening in other places, which is probably why most Aussies are happy to lockdown hard if it means we can stay practically Covid free. Hopefully the vaccine will be a massive success, and we will be able to travel again soon, but in the meantime I’m happy with how safe I feel here. And hopefully the circuit break in SA will work quicker than in VIC so we can all have a great Xmas.

@HesterShaw1

Not being allowed out for exercise is based on zero scientific justification, especially in rural areas. It's simply "being seen to be stern with the population virus".

Complete bullshit.

The justification is actually rural hospitals simply wouldnt cope with an outbreak, which i agree is true. Even a basic procedure you go to city, having a baby? to the city. Corona, they would be screwed

Good thing about rural areas though, we have 2 cops in our town, they go home between 5 and 7pm, so if you wanna go for a run at night, go for it, walk your dog, a ok, go for a fish even cos know one will know.
We mostly have big yards, usually a heap to amuse ourselves too, dd has a cubby, trampoline, swings, bike, and 1.5 acres
Plus work will be super quiet lol

Im hearing its stricter in city though which id hate and wouldnt accept more than 2 weeks of.

My thinking is they know that a longer lockdown over xmas and new year wont work so hard and fast now to hopefully wipe it out at community level, where it was and less trouble over xmas

Yes I know what the thinking is! But if someone who lives in a house on its own , or even in a village goes out for a walk in the fresh air and sunshine, there is next to no chance of them passing on any virus assuming someone 300km away from the outbreak is infected (how likely is that?) and even assuming they stopped to chap to someone at 2m.

It's the southern hemisphere summer now. Even in the Cornish summer in the UK, where there were lots of people outside on beaches and on walks and out for cycle rides, transmission shrank to pretty much zero.

Surely some kind of common sense is desirable?

I can honestly see this coming in UK

Reading your comment back @squeekums, it does look as though we agree with one another :)

I would have little faith in police turning a blind eye though after what we saw in Melbourne.

@tortoiseshell1985

I can honestly see this coming in UK

I don't think so. The genie is well and truly out of the bottle here, and in Australia they still seem to think they can eliminate it by being extra draconian.

It’s hard to to know if I’m in the wrong by no blindly accepting what my government accepts me to do. Lord knows life would be easier and less stressful if I didn’t question these things the way I do. I am actually slightly disturbed that most people accept such draconian restrictions without question. It doesn’t have to be a binary choice between being terrified and wanting to do whatever it takes or thinking Covid is a conspiracy and hoax.

Part of me just wants to take my dog for a solo, socially distanced walk but I’m legitimately worried about being stopped by Police. I hate that it’s come to this. Even if it’s for ‘the greater good’.

@tortoiseshell1985

I can honestly see this coming in UK

Nah. We don't want to lose our world beating death rate. Ok, not quite world beating but we're in the top 5 (with the others all having much larger populations).

Australians value their elderly and disabled. They also see the way out - the way to save the economy - is hard and fast containment.

The UK, on the other hand, prefers to drag it all out, moaning every step of the way. I can see why we're known as whingeing Poms.

It doesn’t have to be a binary choice between being terrified and wanting to do whatever it takes or thinking Covid is a conspiracy and hoax.

Good thing it isn't then. I don't think the government is trying to control us, take away our rights, or make us terrified. I think they're trying to stop a pandemic, so I'll cop 6 days at home.

@MrsMiaWallis

So are Australia ever going to let tourists back in? Clearly not. Good luck with that.

They'll let in clean safe countries. Much of Asia, for example. They can manage perfectly well without us whingeing Poms.

The temporarily reduced air traffic pollution might also help the badly damaged Great Barrier Reef.

Are you allowed out to work?