The Lockdown Drags On and On

Part of the reason that lockdown is difficult to endure is the fact that every day is pretty much the same as every other day. Without the normal events that help to punctuate and define our weeks, we seem to be stuck on a perpetual 24 hour loop. Every day is like Groundhog Day.

Since we now have been trapped in a lockdown of varying degrees of severity for over 6 months, we are all getting near to the limits of our endurance. As I have said many times before, the hardest part is being separated from our family and friends because of the 5 km travel limit. This is also a huge problem for those who do not have a suitable and safe bike path network in their neighbourhoods. Their choices are either to not ride at all, or to take the risk of cycling on busy public roads.

Today was a very significant day on Victoria's so called recovery roadmap. Dan Andrews had promised that, due to the steady reduction in daily new infection cases, he would be able to reduce the restrictions in several steps. I am sure that the whole state was eagerly waiting to see exactly what changes would be introduced. Personally, I had been hoping for something important, but expecting very little. And that's exactly how it turned out.

From tomorrow Melbourne will no longer have a nightly curfew, but the dreaded 5 km travel limit will apply for at least the next three weeks. The only other significant change is that up to 5 people from a maximum of two households can meet outdoors for a maximum of 2 hours. That can only take place if both households are within 5 km of each other. For us, this makes very little difference as we will still not be able to see our youngest grandson . The misery drags on and on.

All of this has been taking place against the backdrop of the hotel quarantine enquiry. Every day we are faced with an unending series of denials from just about every government minister and senior bureaucrat, all claiming that they "knew nothing" and that the bungles must have been someone else's fault. We are being told to believe that the disastrous decision to use private security to run the quarantine program was made by nobody. Yet it was that dreadful decision that led to 99% of all subsequent Covid cases and over 700 deaths. So far the only casualty of this debacle has been the Health Minister. Jenny Mikakos finally quit the ministry (and parliament) when Dan Andrews threw her under the proverbial bus. I wonder how many other heads will roll when the enquiry finally hands down it's finding at the end of the year ?

Another factor which has made lockdown seem even worse than usual is that the past few days have been wet and very cold. It has been a return to winter with a vengeance. This has meant that we are spending even more time indoors than usual. This year just goes on giving.Read more