Back To Lockdown

   Things are now the worst they've ever been here in Australia. I quite rather I told you so about this facepalmably preventable circumstanes in light of there being a vaccine and all. The current outbreak is almost entirely in the state of New South Wales, which is Australia's most populous state (and 65% of its population live in Sydnay).



   The political leader ("Premier") of NSW, "Gladys" Bariunpronouncable, has spent most of the last year saying the state I live in, Victoria, was too heavy handed in its lockdowns, and in this anti-lockdown spirit she was then far too slow to put into effect meaningful lockdowns to stop this outbreak.



   As you can see in the above chart, we had the biggest previous outbreak in Australia but we turned it right around with heavy lockdowns, I really don't think this new outbreak is going to reverse course the same way since I think they let it get too bad there before doing anything about it. As you can see we have a very small bump here, almost entirely from incursions from NSW (though I think they've closed the border but enough people still have excuses to come through that they keep bringing cases in). Easlier in the week I think Melbourne went into lockdown (where 70% of this state's population live) but the rest of the state ("regional" victoria) was just under the usual mask mandates.
   As of Saturday morning we (my friends) were expecting regional to go into lockdown at midnight, and thus the lads were discussing doing something like going bowling while they still could, though it being for once a nice day where I felt I could go outside without dying of cold, I was intent to do some beekeepinh. But then at around 11am there was apparently a "pressie," (press conference) in which it was announced the whole state would go into lockdown in just two hours (!!). I wasn't watching but this was suddenly being commented on everywhere. I had already been planning on going to the hardware and some other stores so I headed out to do that before they closed.
   I live about an hour from town so it was just shy of an hour till lockdown when I got off the highway into town and immediately I saw something bizarre -- traffic was backed up right into that roundabout, which never even comes close to happening.



   While stuck in this traffic I sent a voice message to the standing facebook chat-group of my friends exclaiming about the traffic, and one of them happened to take and send a screenshot of the traffic which is convenient now for a visual aid. I had just come up the M1 "Princes Highway" coming up from the south there and gotten on to what is labeled as "Waurn Ponds Dr" but is actually still sign posted under its old name as the A10 "Princes Highway" (as in you get off the Princes Highway onto Princes Highway, which confused the hell out of me the first time I tried to go into town, and caused me to accidentally get right back on the M1 highway instead of going into town). I quickly abandoned all hope of going to the shops because that appeared to be where all the cars were going -- inbound into the city other than turn lanes into the shopping center were still free, but I kept looking nervously at the outbound lane thinking "how am I going to get back out of the city???" -- if you look at the above map and keep in mind we drive on the left, you'll note the traffic on the outbound side there. I ended up hanging a right past hte shopping center there and was able to proceed out the east side of town, but I was just amazed and flabbergasted by the several-kilometers worth of completely backed up traffic.
   Obviously with the two hours lockdown notice everyone in town had thought ot rush to the town's biggest shopping center ... no doubt to completely ransack the toilet paper (or "bog roll" as they amusingly informally call it).


   Anyway, so yeah now we're in heavy lockdown ... which barely effects me really. Only allowed out of the house for permitted reasons, but essential work is one of them and as an agriculture ("primary production") worker I'm essential, but I do have to carry a work permit with me at all times (which I issue myself, though John Edmonds the other beekeeper I've been working for half time will presumably also issue me one).

   In other news I got my second vaccination dose two weeks ago or so, so there's that.

   I really don't know when this lockdown will ease -- I frankly don't think they'll get the lid back on this outbreak, I think it's already too out of control in NSW. Up until now Australia did not have continous community transmission, just a steady flow of people coming in from abroad and sitting in quarantine with it, and occasional outbreaks from things like taxi drivers who had driven quarantinees or air crews, which were quickly got under control. But I think now it's gone out into the community to an extent that won't be stamped out.

   And vaccine hesitency is, I think, even stronger here that America even. Big protests today in Melbourne and Sydney about the lockdowns, like god forbid the government even try to stamp down on this lethal plague...