What's happening in my little corner of the world...

I live in the Australian state of Victoria. The below pdf is Australia's federal response to COVID-19.

Australia's Health Response to COVID-19

We are currently on what's called "Stage 2 Restrictions". This includes things like...

  • no more than 5 people can attend a wedding
  • a maximum of 10 people at a funeral
  • maintaining social distancing of 1.5 metres or a maximum or 1 person per 4 square metres
  • wash hands regularly and avoid touching your face (because of the virus' ability to survive for days on various surfaces)
  • family gatherings are out
  • cinemas, sporting events, stadiums, etc., are closed
  • 2 weeks self-isolation applies if: returning from overseas; travelling to some of the other Australian states; one is exposed to COVID-19. This is being monitored by police and enforced where needed. There is a maximum fine of $20,000 for anyone who flouts this.
  • essential services -- supermarkets, pharmacies, doctors, etc. -- are operating
  • our major supermarkets have set times where only the elderly and disabled can shop and separate set times where only people from the health sector can shop. The regular population shops outside these times.
  • restaurants are only open for take-away food
  • we are told to stay indoors unless we have to travel to doctors, supermarkets, etc.
  • the list goes on...

So far, around 2,000,000 people (10% of our population) have become unemployed. Our major airlines are down to around 10% of their usual number of flights, and daily I read in the paper about more industries that have temporarily closed and have suspended people's employment. Our state and federal governments are doing what they can to provide financial safety nets.

I'm a school teacher and at the end of last week, my school moved to distance education. This means, that my classes are now conducted over the internet using Microsoft Teams. Since I'm a 'chalk and talk' kind of teacher, MS Teams (with video and audio) and Onenote suits me perfectly. However, many of my colleagues are not finding it that easy to instruct their students online. We are told that it is likely that we will be remote teaching for some time yet. No-one knows how long because this is all new territory.

Because being a classroom with close contact to 25 students is a bit scary right now, I'm glad that I can work via the internet. After having had a number of serious health issues in the last handful of years, I don't think that I'd cope too well with COVID-19. I don't want to find out whether or not that is true, though.

  • As a number of others have indicated in posts above this one, the important thing always to keep in mind with COVID-19 is that the ONLY reason that the statistics are favourable right now is because governments all over the world have taken action to contain transmission of the virus. This has stopped hospital systems from being overwhelmed and has allowed people to be treated. Italy and Spain are showing the world what it looks like when health sectors start crumbling.

    In the news, article after article shows just how ferociously and eagerly this virus travels from person to person. Because of this, it would be very easy for countries to become incapable of providing treatment. If that happens, the statistics would change enormously because escalating cases would be impossible to accommodate.

The 'around 1% death-rate' is misleading because it more closely represents the best case scenario where medical containment of the virus has been, more or less, accomplished. Were this virus allowed to run wild and free, the situation around the world would be vastly different than it is right now.

Literally, we are all in this together. I'm more than happy for my governments to err on the side of caution. As Sundance says, there's no coming back from death. I'm going to do whatever it takes to stay alive as long as I can. 'Inconvenience' is a small price to pay for living.

I'd love to hear stories from other forum members in other countries and find out what they are doing and how they are coping.

Regards,
Noel

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