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.

5 days of lockdown and glorious weather. I'll happily swap our long depressing lockdown in the freezing cold for yours.

I think Australia actually have a functioning track and trace system. So they can use these 5 days to track all contacts if the positive person/people and then tell them to isolate for 2 weeks. Then everyone who isn't a* contact can be released.
Unfortunately our government missed the opportunity to do this last summer when cases were low, because they implemented a crappy track and race which does nothing.

We never got cases to double figures in the uk though and shutting area by area here isn't quite the same, you can travel from county to county easily i live in one county but am less than 5 miles from next, australia is so much larger so travelling from melbourne to victoria etc isn't so easy
Whilst I agree track and trace could of been better , we have never been in this position , like most of europe , the numbers have always been to large here

@FreezeFloodlit Thanks. You're right, it's not a competition. The effects will vary massively according to geography. I really feel for people in regional Victoria. They don't have any cases, yet this will be the second time they've been locked down because of what's happened in Melbourne.

Sending positive vibes to all Australians at the moment and I can empathise with your situation in Melbourne.

However, here in the U.K. we are in a crisis of extraordinary proportions. We have been in hard lockdown for a huge % of the past 11 months with only a few weeks respite - with major restrictions. We are also experiencing a tough winter, weather wise.

This isn’t the biggest issue, IMO. We are traumatised by the death rate and hospital numbers. The current figures are 110000 COVID related deaths, but this isn’t the true number because other hospital procedures are delayed, suicides are up as are domestic murder rates. The trauma is apparent on so many posts here on MN. Whilst I don’t agree with many peoples position on lockdown, I can and do feel the same pain. It’s heartbreaking living here.

So, whilst you might chose to push back at us and let us know you’ve been through it too (and of course you have) spare a thought for us here going through hell.

@BlackAmericanoNoSugar

My SIL is one of the quarantine hotel cases. It does seem to be a very highly transmissible variant as she caught it while she was there. There was a family recently arrived from the UK who had tested positive soon after arriving (I think) across the corridor from her and they think that she opened her door to collect her meal soon after they had collected their meal and caught it that way. So I can see how that would be worrying for local authorities, she didn't touch anything that they had touched or even in direct contact, she was just near where they had been after they had gone.

Surely far more likely that she caught it at some point in her long plane flight, quite possibly with the same family or certainly with others likely to be positive. If it was that contagious half the UK would have had it now....

I think it's ok to complain on a UK site groovergirl because it shows that even with very strict rules about out of state and international travel, it is really hard to control the virus. It's frustrating because on almost every level Australia seems to have done better than most countries. Hopefully, your Stage 4 lockdown plus all the other measures in Australia will stop it becoming endemic, as it is here. We are only just introducing quarantine for travellers from countries on the new variant 'at risk' list. The rules will come in on Monday. Only a year late!

All that really needs to be said to show how severe the last lockdown in Vic was, the AFL final wasn’t at the MCG 😮 (AFL usually trumps everything in Australia)

I can't say I am surprised having seen all the photos of the socialising that my brother, his wife and my cousins have been doing, meeting up with large groups of friends, having visitors over to stay and going to stay at their holiday home.

[quote groovergirl]@BlackAmericanoNoSugar I'm so sorry for your SIL. It doesn't take much, does it? Is she recovering well? This new variant moves so fast![/quote]
She is fine thanks groovergirl, she has no symptoms and her husband who is in the room with her hasn't caught it. They both had to miss my niece's (their daughter's) funeral because their quarantine has been extended, which must be very hard on both of them. They are both extremely devout though and are praying a lot which I hope is giving them comfort.

They’re hoping the 5 day circuit break will be enough time to trace everyone who might have been in contact with the infected person. It worked in Brisbane and Perth, so fingers crossed it’ll work for us too.
It’s because it’s the ‘uk strain’ which is more contagious than the original strain and they’re finding that by the time they’ve found primary contacts, they’re already testing positive. This should give them time to find secondary and further contacts over the next few days while those people aren’t out passing it around the rest of community.
We have a fantastic test and trace system, so fingers crossed they can get all the work done over the next few days and we can get our ‘Covid normal’ back again.
I’m optimistic that the world will feel a bit more normal later this year, wherever we are. I hope so, I want to see my uk family and friends before too much longer!

@BlackAmericanoNoSugar

I think it's your family mentioned in this BBC report - towards the end?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-55929180

Also the security guard who caught it but never was in contact with anyone.

I am fascinated by how it spreads.

@Sheepies

I was surprised that Oz doesn't start vaccinations until next week. Having such fantastically low numbers through the effort of the gov and more importantly its citizens, surely they'd have wanted them asap to help stay low?

Have you not seen the way it is going to be sent out worldwide? Yours was first because of the huge cases? How it is so slow and to get one type transported they had to make special freezers to send it to Nz. In stages and as governments give approval At least those of us that are later to get immunised will hopefully be more informed of possible issues or a chance of a better vaccine? Who knows. I wouldn't be comparing any lockdown from days to months Any lockdown is abnormal.

@OverTheRubicon. If it’s the case I think it is they are pretty sure it happened the way the poster said. It’s believed that the high viral load of the family combined was the reason it was so contagious in that case

An Aus epidemiologist talked about the door open thing on radio this morning. Incredible.

However hard the lockdown was in Australia, at least they had the knowledge that it was working and cases were low. They could live in the miserable lockdown with a reasonable expectation of being safe.

We have lost over 100,000 people in the uk despite our lockdowns. People were left to die alone both in hospital and at home. Most of us were and are constantly worried even about going to the supermarket and bringing the virus home - nine people have died in my small town alone.

Not in England, there's never been a distance rule

There has in Wales, which is part of the UK. Just like Victoria is part of Australia.

@Lindy2 If I could send you the 40-degree scorcher predicted for this Sunday, I would!

Seriously, I wish all of you in the UK some lovely sunshine, some Covid containment and an end to the restrictions that are making your lives hell.

Thanks for the good discussion here tonight, everyone. You've given me a much better insight. Off now to do some panic buying of TP and pasta, and feeling lucky I can still do that.

@OverTheRubicon

If it’s the case I’m thinking on, the person had tested negative through their 14 day quarantine then left had their additional test on day 16 and tested positive. I think they were on the same floor as another positive case so it was being investigated if the contracted it in quarantine

Just out of interest - why does it only seem to be Melbourne who keep having this issue? I have friends in Queensland and after the first lockdown they have had normal lives (I think they had a one day one later in the year). Is it just a coincidence?

For UK eyes for comparison here are the latest figures - for us it's a case of hey Boris and Brexit and AWOL holidays shaking hands and stuff and of course our world-beating track and trace.

Cases
28,879
Recovered
25,486
Deaths
909

OverTheRubicon She most likely caught it in the hotel, they know because of the timing. She had flown in and was tested a lot, after she had been there a week and had a load of negative tests they put her in full PPE and let her visit my niece while they turned off the life-support machine. She had about 5 days of quarantine left (still testing negative regularly) when her husband arrived and she chose to stay with him for the full length of his quarantine to keep him company and the funeral was arranged for two days after his quarantine finished. She tested positive three days before her husband's quarantine was finished. By that stage it was around three weeks since she had visited my niece in hospital and around four weeks since she had travelled.

Again, I think people are perhaps under a misleading impression of UK freedoms. Perhaps because of the way it’s been reported overseas.

What I will say, is that I have vaccinated a lot of emotional Grandparents in the past few weeks who can finally look forward to seeing their grandchildren again after nearly a year.

@groovergirl

Thanks everyone. I've been following the UK's travails, and yes, sorry, you are really suffering there. (I'm guessing your govt didn't move as quickly as it should have last year -- is that right?)

@Ilikewinter Stage 4 for us is the strictest level. Schools, non-food shops, libraries and public pools will close, restaurants can only do socially-distanced takeaway, one person per household may visit the supermarket once a day, two hours' outdoor exercise only permitted. We can't go further than 5km from home unless we're an essential worker.

I WFH (freelance) anyway, but lockdown means most of my work will be cancelled. DD will be working at the dining table again. But the weather is glorious and we'll try to make something positive of it.

Our government repeatedly moves too slow with half arsed measures. My 4 year old hasn’t played with her friends since before Christmas and if she is lucky she them mid March but I suspect it will be later.

Good luck with it OP, we are all in the same uncertain boat, and that's tough on everyone.

@echt ‘educate yourself’ - how about you try a bit of education yourself?

This is a predominantly UK forum. We’ve had almost 4 million cases, 115k fatalities, three lockdowns, continuous restrictions, massively reduced access to healthcare, huge economic impacts.... what exactly is it you think we need educating on? You’ve no idea what it’s like to live in a country where every day there is a very real risk of contracting covid despite restrictions.

What’s Australia had 29k cases and not even a thousand deaths? I mean kudos to your government but bollocks do you have any concept of the worst case scenario.

Lockdowns of whatever length are hard and awful, but it takes a special kind of blockheadedness to tell a predominantly UK forum to fucking educate themselves.