Melbourne is back in Stage 4 lockdown.

[groovergirl]

Howdy all. I'm in Melbourne, and it's just been announced that we're back in Stage 4 lockdown from midnight. It's because of some coronavirus cases in a quarantine hotel at the airport.

We've done this before, and everyone was saying "You've got this, Melbourne!" and telling us how awesome we were. But we've been so awesome for so long, and we're all so tired of this. I think most Australians are prepared to do masks and practical precautions for the long term, but these sudden hits to work, school and social life are hard to bear. I couldn't see my family in Sydney this past Xmas because the border was closed.

Hand-hold, anyone? I'll be OK tomorrow. Just in despair now.

To most people there wasn’t that much difference

I think it depends on personal circumstances a bit, from my perspective I could do a lot of the things I enjoy from mid may, outdoor swimming, garden centres etc. I was never under curfew, I was never restricted to 5 km of my home, I would never have been isolated for months alone as a single adult, I would have never been denied government permission to go to my own grandmother's funeral in the same country. These all happened to my brother and sister.

I would never have been isolated for months alone as a single adult

Support bubbles for people living alone were only introduced on 13 June

Yep, the UK has had lockdowns for ages - we in Melbourne get that. We did well over 100 days last year to bring our case numbers down from, broadly, what the entire UK had at the same time on the exact same day. (One day in July 2020 in Victoria 723, same day UK 763)

Yes, but that number in the UK was AFTER the months and months of lockdowns, and it was scattered all over the country. That was very near the peak in Victoria, in tighter clusters among a much smaller population. And while I agree that the UK govt made huge errors, even a better one could not have kept people.under lockdown from March until 6 months later.

@DwarfQuasar plenty of us have had to miss our own grandparents' funerals, me included.

@DwarfQuasar plenty of us have had to miss our own grandparents' funerals, me included

Because the government denied you permission to attend?

It seemed madness for a handful of cases. i also think i read about a woman in rural NSW who was having a troubled pregnancy. She was not permitted to go to her closest hospital just across the border but had to be flown to Sydney. The baby died. That is just nuts and an utter tragedy.

Yes, some States are just fucked, the rules allow no mercy. QLD pulled a good one at one point. Baby was born in northern NSW and needed urgent assistance at a major hospital so it was allowed to go to Bris. The mother was not and was not permitted to cross the border for several weeks until they finally caved from public pressure and other States basically publicly calling them arseholes. The parents offered to do quarantine time in QLD and the hospital said it had provision for the mum to do it within the hospital even but nope. Several weeks sitting at home without your newborn because you are on the wrong side of line that someone once drew on a map. But that’s okay, we are always told we have no idea how hard it is in this regard because we are not in separate countries to our family and friends which seems to be the only tick box.

How can they justify this level of disturbance for 13 cases. How unfortunate if you were getting married tomorrow.

RosieLemonade

I have such a different view of this than you.

I’m thinking gosh, how incredibly lucky they are to have a government prepared to act early and reduce the burden on their population.

(Apologies to all our Victorian posters who are having an appalling day, I’m not trying to minimise what you’ve been through and you’ve had a shock today).

I know regret is a bad thing but knowing what we knew, if only we’d come down harder, earlier at the end of September/October and got on top of cases then, closed schools for a week either side of half term. How much less pain and suffering there would have been.

[quote DwarfQuasar]**@DwarfQuasar plenty of us have had to miss our own grandparents' funerals, me included

Because the government denied you permission to attend?[/quote]
The only funeral option available had a capacity of 10 including celebrant, and even if there had been, guidance was not to travel significant distances - especially when there was in any case no chance of seeing them before their death except via facetime. Now funerals of up to 30 are allowed, but rates are high enough that the chance of catching covid when travelling is still pretty high and not worth it for the many people classed as vulnerable or who can't afford to get ill. My friend has been waiting months to go home to Australia and missed a close family death and funeral too.

This is what frustrates me a bit about people saying that Melbourne was harsher because it was legally enforced - that only actually makes a difference for the relatively small numbers who plan on breaking guidelines. For the vast majority, who followed guidance, the ultimate outcome was the same.

What RosesforMama said.

It's the equivalent of having your entire neighbourhood razed to the ground by a forest fire and finding yourself listening to someone "commiserate" at you about their neighbourhood having lost its playground in those fires and, oh, isnt it awful and so hard for us all.

Gotta read that room mate.

I'm in Australia - not Melbourne - and was in lockdown over Christmas. For two whole weeks, poor me. It was a really big surprise, as hadn't had any Covid anywhere for weeks and was a bit of a bummer because it was just our area. So other parts of Sydney were having a lovely Christmas and doing whatever they liked.

People from Melbourne were pretty vile on social media; our lockdown wasn't as tough as theirs, we weren't trying hard enough to stamp it out, they had done a much stricter lockdown. My UK relatives were kind - but I didn't ask for sympathy. For that I spoke with local friends.

Misery is competitive, it seems. I like the ring theory.

The other thing with Melbourne is that because they did their lockdown last Aussie winter, when most of the rest of the world was having fun, they have a disproportionate sense of how tough their lockdown was. A bit like my Christmas- crap to feel as though you're the only bit of the country locked down, but in the end we all got to zero cases. Life was totally normal in between. As they say, "mustn't grumble".

Sorry, "the rest of the world" wasn't having fun. The rest of Australia and most of the UK (except the NW and Leicester) seemed to be.

@NightCzar

Sorry, "the rest of the world" wasn't having fun. The rest of Australia and most of the UK (except the NW and Leicester) seemed to be.

England has been in harsh lockdown for a long time now, don’t recall anyone having fun.

We’ve had tiers here, so we were in tier 4, which meant lockdown. For ages. Months and months. Looking at Australia it looks like you guys are so lucky. I have family there and they are having a ball. They don’t understand what we are going through at all.

@NightCzar

Sorry, "the rest of the world" wasn't having fun. The rest of Australia and most of the UK (except the NW and Leicester) seemed to be.

They really weren’t. Sounds like it’s been misreported. The UK has mostly been in lockdown for a year now. No fun to be had, sorry!

@PicsInRed

What RosesforMama said.

It's the equivalent of having your entire neighbourhood razed to the ground by a forest fire and finding yourself listening to someone "commiserate" at you about their neighbourhood having lost its playground in those fires and, oh, isnt it awful and so hard for us all.

Gotta read that room mate.

Yup. And also the posters (not OP, but others) who'll point out that their playground was actually more burnt down than our playground, so in many ways it's worse, if you leave aside the rest of our neighbourhood.

@TyrannyOfDistance

Every single case here now is a bloody quarantine escapee -the new UK strain - so clearly this new strain is VERY contagious.

So much misunderstanding about the Aust response here.

Yep, the UK has had lockdowns for ages - we in Melbourne get that. We did well over 100 days last year to bring our case numbers down from, broadly, what the entire UK had at the same time on the exact same day. (One day in July 2020 in Victoria 723, same day UK 763 - it's a Guardian link:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/04/the-uk-can-learn-from-victoria-how-to-bring-its-covid-second-wave-under-control

From down here, much of the England response for nearly a year now has been this half-arsed oh here's a voucher for the pub, yep head off to Europe for yer hols, let's ease up for Christmas, as led by the ever-bullshitting Boris. Oh, and don't forget the ooh, we can't close our borders coz we need all the trucks/food/French cheese/cheap German groceries .

So many of you mistake the Australian national response for the much more robust campaign led by our premiers (which is where today's lockdown decision comes from). PM Morrison controls the national response, premiers control the states - and Morrison has been rolled on his "live with the virus" bullshit. Over and over.

To the point that today, he was all for the "proportionate" response to this UK strain that has arrived here because we are (albeit much too slowly) bringing Aussies home and they are bringing mutant strains of a virus - because that's what viruses do when they are not properly controlled. They mutate and evolve. Cheers for that also Boris that's quite a gift to the colonies.

Also .. I totally get that Mumsnet is UK Based. But I do think, from the many, many posts I read each day (and the many news stories in our Australian media ripped from these forums), that it's pretty rank to suggest somebody can't come on and have a vent about a tough time looming as a person, woman, mother or any variation of the same because they don't live in Stowe or WW2E or whatever the frig London postcode you call it.

It's not your situation, nope. But - as someone who's in Melbourne, heading back into a shitty lockdown, after the bloody hard yards we did just months ago - a little empathy wouldn't go astray.

We'd extend a hand to you all.

Sorry for the long post. I don't make many, and will probably head back under my (adopted) Akubra after this. But gee, the mean spiritedness hit me where it hurts.

+Oh, and don't forget the ooh, we can't close our borders coz we need all the trucks/food/French cheese/cheap German groceries hmm.*

Actually a lot of staples like sausages,
bacon and potatoes come from the EU. As does fruit such as oranges.

Well said @TyrannyOfDistance.

The first UK lockdown was not as strict as those in Australia/NZ - for those of you who think it was, remember we can read the posts on MN and from those alone it was obvious that it wasn't. We feel for those in the UK (and elsewhere), we really do, but while your government hasn't dealt with it well, neither have many of your citizens who seem to think the rules didn't apply to them. Why not vent at them, rather than the OP.

eaglejulesk

I would suggest should the worst happen to NZ, it wouldn't be sporting for MNers to pop over to TradeMe and have a vent about a much more limited iteration is such a burden and however shall we cope, and then when called out for insensitivity, have a pop at NZ's government and Kiwis for bringing it all upon themselves.

That just wouldn't be cricket, as they say.

One point to make regarding the “UK strain” we call it the “Kent” variant here. Meaning it was first discovered in Kent, where a major port is. Is fairly likely it came from Europe via the ports. We discovered it because we are shit hot on genome testing here in the UK. Doesn’t mean we made the variant here. It was discovered here.

Makes me wonder what else is being misreported to the world.

Spot on Dobby

eaglejulesk

“The first UK lockdown was not as strict as those in Australia/NZ”

Whilst technically correct, to all intents and purposes, for the vast majority of people, it was!

For a lot longer and followed by many more months of restrictions.

+Oh, and don't forget the ooh, we can't close our borders coz we need all the trucks/food/French cheese/cheap German groceries hmm.

Actually a lot of staples like sausages,
bacon and potatoes come from the EU. As does fruit such as oranges.

When you get as many planes arriving with European produce on, with pilots who then get to travel across the country with the produce they've brought into the country, as we have lorries coming into the U.K., then you can compare your imports of European foods to ours.

"neither have many of your citizens who seem to think the rules didn't apply to them. Why not vent at them, rather than the OP."

Actually, rule following has been at over 90 percent throughout. Don't believe everything the press tells you. We have had a far worse time of it in case numbers for a constellation of complex reasons: we are a travel hub and far more interconnected internationally than Aus or NZ, we have a far higher concentration of houses, we have colder, wetter weather, a vastly bigger population, a smaller country with lots of people travelling back and forth pre covid. We were the first place where a faster replicating variant got a foothold and we have given the rest of the world a headstart on getting on top of it, but our own people died in their thousands because we were the first. And yes our government has made mistakes. But It isn't fair to blame us as a bunch of feckless numpties who didn't listen to lockdown rules. Of course there are a few of those; but they are very much a minority.

Also in the beginning hospitals discharged covid positive elderly into the care homes. So it was rife in care homes among the vulnerable. This was the cause of many deaths. It’s utterly heartbreaking. Those elderly residents weren’t breaking rules. Have some compassion.

@NoWordForFluffy

+Oh, and don't forget the ooh, we can't close our borders coz we need all the trucks/food/French cheese/cheap German groceries hmm.

Actually a lot of staples like sausages,
bacon and potatoes come from the EU. As does fruit such as oranges.

When you get as many planes arriving with European produce on, with pilots who then get to travel across the country with the produce they've brought into the country, as we have lorries coming into the U.K., then you can compare your imports of European foods to ours.

Erm, I’m not sure who you’re agreeing or disagreeing with! I wa saying that the staples arriving in the U.K. via the port are that, staples, in many cases. Not just fancy goods. We would be stuck this time of year if we couldn’t supplement British fruit with spanish oranges etc. And they come via the ports. It would be hard to stop that trade with a quarantine.

@eaglejulesk

Well said *@TyrannyOfDistance*.

The first UK lockdown was not as strict as those in Australia/NZ - for those of you who think it was, remember we can read the posts on MN and from those alone it was obvious that it wasn't. We feel for those in the UK (and elsewhere), we really do, but while your government hasn't dealt with it well, neither have many of your citizens who seem to think the rules didn't apply to them. Why not vent at them, rather than the OP.

at the idea that MN is a fair and representative sample. Yes, it's full of people curtain twitching at their neighbours who AREN'T FOLLOWING THE RULES (it then frequently turns out that these are rules the OP has made up) but as someone has already pointed out, the actual research rather than MN rantings has shown that compliance has been consistently high.