AUSTRALIA
Lockdown in Melbourne
Everything is very quiet here. Schools are now on holidays for two weeks and have had another week tacked on to the end. Public transport is running, most of our small business has been forced to close down. Doctors, Pharmacies, Supermarkets are still operating but limits have been put on how much you can purchase of certain goods. All essential services are still operating. Don’t ask me why but toilet paper has been cleared from the shelves it is now making its way back on to the shelves with people only allowed to purchase one packet at a time. I saw one asian family of three people buy one packet each and take them through different registers the other day. Not quite the spirit of things. The other day I tried to purchase 2 cans of asparagus and 2 cans of corn kernels but was only permitted to take a total of 2 cans. I ended up with the corn kernels. I went to another supermarket and bought the missing 2 cans. I am just as bad as the three people with toilet paper. Our postal service is still running.
K was going to have me go and stay with her but one of the doctors at the hospital where she works told her that was not a good idea. He suggested leaving me at home on my own and if I needed food she should take it and leave it at my front door. I think I have just been put in the “elderly” category. Not a nice thought. I can’t even go and visit my mother in law as the aged care system is in lockdown. I understand why no contact but if it is going to continue for a long time it is going to give those on their own another set of health issues.
I do feel for all those who have lost their jobs and have no income coming in and no reserves in the bank. G is working from home, S is working from home and K as a theatre nurse still has a job.
report from a relation in Melbourne 26/3/2020
Australia has reported 502 new coronavirus infections over a single 24-hour period — the largest daily number of cases since the pandemic began.
The figure was well ahead of the previous single-day record of 469, recorded in March. The increase prompted Daniel Andrews, the Victoria premier, to threaten a longer lockdown in Melbourne, Australia’s second largest city, which has been hardest hit by the resurgence.
The city, which has a population of 4.9 million, is in the throes of a second six-week lockdown aimed at slowing the spread of Covid-19.
Mr Andrews said that high among the reasons for the rise in numbers was that nine in ten people are still not following self-isolating rules as soon as they noticed Covid-19 symptoms.
He said of 3,810 cases between July 7 and 21, about 90 per cent did not isolate between the onset of symptoms and getting tested. About 50 per cent did not isolate in the period between getting tested and receiving a result. -
23/7/2020
We (the people in the state of Victoria) have had the strictest lockdown rules in the world even the WHO said we didn't have to be that strict. Our son lives in the state of Queensland and they had very few rules . We have no idea when we will be able to fly again. All the borders are closed within Australia
received from a genealogy Gosling friend in November 2020
Update from original Melbourne relative
I too went back to knitting, making Lego, reading, jigsaw puzzles and puzzle books during lockdown. I attach a couple of photos of my lego. I must have been deprived as a child for the fact I needed to make something. Mind you, there was no lego around during those years- in the 1950s .
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Fiat |
Land Rover |
Land Cruiser |
Volkswagon |
received 3/12/2020