The Worst Day Yet

When I started this blog about 5 months ago, it was intended that it would record my experiences on our adventure in Canada and Cuba. At that time I had no idea at what was about to unfold across the world in such a short space of time. Since we had all been swept up in an unprecedented disaster, I thought that I would continue to document such an important period in history. I thought that it would probably continue for a couple of months. I was wrong.

Now at the end of July we are in the middle of an horrendous "second wave" of infections. Melbourne is locked down, we cannot see our families or have any visitors to our homes. A coupleo of weeks ago compulsory mask wearing was introduced. We hoped that this would stem the rampant spread of infection. After a couple of days of slightly lower numbers, we were almost daring to hope that the worst was behind us. That all came apart this morning when the latest numbers were released. We were told that a meteoric increase had occured and that no less than 723 new infections were recorded in the past 24 hours. This was by far the worst day that we have suffered since the pandemic began. Even more tragic was the news that another 13 deaths had taken place.

So what happens now ? The explosion in new infections has now finally convinced the state government that it is time to extend the compulsory wearing of masks to the entire state of Victoria. What is completely inexplicable is that the new restrictions do not come into place for 3 days !

The situation in nursing homes has become catastrophic. There are now around 1000 elederly residents who have become infected in these homes, along with 100s of staff. The media has been full of horror stories of elderly residents being left unwashed and unfed in their rooms for days. It is heartbreaking.

Maggie and I have been wearing masks whenever we leave the house and we only do that once a day - either to walk or ride our bikes. The weather today was glorious and we were interested to see how many people were complying with the complusory mask wearing. Although we were pleased to see that the vast majority were doing the right thing, there was still a small number who were not. One middle aged man was boldy walking around the lake, with no sign of a mask. A couple of others had masks, but they were hanging uselessly around their necks, rather than covering their noses and mouths. I wonder what it will take to make these people take this pandemic seriously.

This has been a rather negative entry, but that is the type of day that it has been. I hope that tomorrow will be better.Read more