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Post by Dan33185 on Mar 27, 2020 3:08:31 GMT
Our entire country was put on lockdown yesterday - everyone to stay inside their houses except for essential services (which really does mean ESSENTIAL - couple of businesses, like one of our big-box retailers, tried to claim they were essential and were swiftly told where to go by the Prime Minister). I've been working from home all week anyway - thought that it would be a big challenge with a toddler and a small baby in the house but it's going ok so far. Kind of wish that I didn't have a job where I can work from home as I'd like to be able to play guitar, watch movies and TV, read books, do stuff that needs to be done around the house but not complaining - at least I've got a job that's secure, I know a lot of people don't. I have a 14 year old as well who lives with me half the time, but we decided it would be best for him to be at his mum's place - that's going to be really hard for me though as this order is going to be in place for at least 4 weeks and I'm not going to see him in person until its over. Calling him and doing video chats every day though. The images on the news last night of our roads and cities were crazy - it looked like the start of 28 Days Later. Absolutely nobody around and motorways completely clear. We're a bit ahead of a lot of the world and I think that we've really got the timing right on this - the number of cases over the last week started increasing noticeably - we're up to 283 cases now, just a few days ago it was about 50 cases. Nobody has died yet thankfullly. Until a couple of days ago every case was able to be tied to somebody returning from overseas, but there have been a few in the last couple of days that no connection could be made, so definitely seems that some community spread has happened which justifies the lockdown. Where are you located? I'm thinking that's where us in the states are headed, and I'd rather get ahead of it than wait until it's necessary (too late). One thing that sucks is they aren't allowing any visitors to hospitals, patients only. That includes children, I can't even imagine the fear of being a child in the hospital and not being able to have a parent there, breaks my heart.
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lukin
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Post by lukin on Mar 27, 2020 6:55:27 GMT
Where are you located? I'm thinking that's where us in the states are headed, and I'd rather get ahead of it than wait until it's necessary (too late). One thing that sucks is they aren't allowing any visitors to hospitals, patients only. That includes children, I can't even imagine the fear of being a child in the hospital and not being able to have a parent there, breaks my heart. I'm in New Zealand. 99% of the public are taking the lockdown really seriously. I'm really interested to see how it tracks from here, I'm confident we're going to be in a better position than a lot of countries. Who knows how long the borders will remain closed after we come out of lockdown though, maybe even until there is a vaccine, which seems crazy but also maybe not.
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Post by roscoe on Mar 28, 2020 10:50:32 GMT
Boris Johnson apparently has it. Then again, he may be lying. Again.
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Post by sydneyfan on Mar 29, 2020 2:54:40 GMT
A couple of bits of good news announced here today.....our daily infection rate has begun to decrease, suggesting that social distancing and isolation is working. And the PM has said the government will provide an 80% wage subsidy for any workers who lose their jobs as a result of the crisis.
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Post by hithere on Mar 29, 2020 3:28:33 GMT
how incredibly fortunate. if only the US government .... sigh.
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Post by Dan33185 on Mar 29, 2020 17:19:38 GMT
Meanwhile in the US numbers continue to climb because people refuse to take it seriously. It's not uncommon here to see 20-30 people in the park here during the day, playing basketball, skateboarding together, etc. Just ridiculous.
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Post by sydneyfan on Mar 30, 2020 0:19:52 GMT
I see Trump has retreated from his "back to business by Easter" stance. Thank god for that.
And yeah, we've seen some pretty idiotic behaviour here too, particularly from people under 30. Overall though, the majority are tryng to do the right thing. Overnight, our social distancing rules just got even tighter. In my state you can now be heavily fined if you are outdoors in the company of more than one person. You are only supposed to be outdoors for essential food shopping, medical appointments, work or exercise. Indoors, you are only allowed one visitor, apart from your usual household members.
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Post by sleigher on Apr 1, 2020 4:14:47 GMT
What's everyone doing to keep from going insane? I walked over 10 miles yesterday. made a big batch of chili made a bunch of cookies sorted my sock drawer alphabetized my cologne watched tiger king twice lots of long walks with my dog
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lukin
Junior Member
Posts: 62
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Post by lukin on Apr 1, 2020 20:07:57 GMT
I see Trump has retreated from his "back to business by Easter" stance. Thank god for that. And yeah, we've seen some pretty idiotic behaviour here too, particularly from people under 30. Overall though, the majority are tryng to do the right thing. Overnight, our social distancing rules just got even tighter. In my state you can now be heavily fined if you are outdoors in the company of more than one person. You are only supposed to be outdoors for essential food shopping, medical appointments, work or exercise. Indoors, you are only allowed one visitor, apart from your usual household members. The one visitor thing kind of boggles my mind - like that's one visitor at a time right? So there's nothing to stop a person from having 20 different visitors at different times? That's just not the way to stop something spreading - if those 20 people each visited 20 people, that's 400 people having contact with only one point of separation. As restrictive as it feels, I think that our government has gotten it right here - they're stressing that everyone in your house is your "bubble" and you shouldn't have contact with anyone outside of your "bubble" - every time you interact with someone outside of your bubble, their bubble and yours then combine into one bubble - to stop the spread we need to keep the bubbles small and many. Our number of cases are going up still, but it has been static for the last 5 days - we're not seeing exponential growth yet - lockdown has only been in effect for a week though, so potentially there are cases still unknown from people who got it prior to that who don't have symptoms yet. We had our first death a couple of days ago sadly, but still at one for now, and only two people in intensive care at the moment. I feel like we are probably going to get it well under control and will be able to ease a lot of the restrictions in the next couple of months, but we are probably going to remain isolated from the rest of the world (which we have the luxury of being able to do due to being an island nation) for quite some time yet - possibly even until there is a vaccine. One of our biggest industries is tourism, so that's going to take a massive hit the longer this goes on - will mean a lot of people out of work.
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Post by sydneyfan on Apr 2, 2020 2:32:54 GMT
So the Police Commissioner in my state just announced that social distancing laws will cease at the end of June. Which would strongly suggest that the government has some confidence that we are getting on top of this thing. Either that, or we're all doomed, lol. lukin, the one visitor thing is really aimed at older or vulnerable people who might require someone to bring them food, check on their welfare etc. For instance, aged parents who still live at home but need a carer or family member to come and tidy up the house, cook a meal, do the lawns etc. We're not supposed to visit anyone just for social reasons etc. It does present some dangers for sure, but these new rules are a pretty inexact science anyway. For instance, we can still go to the hairdresser here, but dentists have been forced to close except for emergency procedures. I get that a trip to the dentist is more invasive on your personal space than a haircut, but dentists have protective equipment, sterile surgeries etc. Hairdressers don't. I cracked a molar yesterday and had to go to my dentist. It was an emergency, but I had to fill in paperwork about my travel history and current health status, as well as agree to have my temperature taken, before they would even let me in the building. Quite an odd experience.
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lukin
Junior Member
Posts: 62
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Post by lukin on Apr 2, 2020 12:32:16 GMT
So the Police Commissioner in my state just announced that social distancing laws will cease at the end of June. Which would strongly suggest that the government has some confidence that we are getting on top of this thing. Either that, or we're all doomed, lol. lukin , the one visitor thing is really aimed at older or vulnerable people who might require someone to bring them food, check on their welfare etc. For instance, aged parents who still live at home but need a carer or family member to come and tidy up the house, cook a meal, do the lawns etc. We're not supposed to visit anyone just for social reasons etc. It does present some dangers for sure, but these new rules are a pretty inexact science anyway. For instance, we can still go to the hairdresser here, but dentists have been forced to close except for emergency procedures. I get that a trip to the dentist is more invasive on your personal space than a haircut, but dentists have protective equipment, sterile surgeries etc. Hairdressers don't. I cracked a molar yesterday and had to go to my dentist. It was an emergency, but I had to fill in paperwork about my travel history and current health status, as well as agree to have my temperature taken, before they would even let me in the building. Quite an odd experience. Pretty much all that's open here is supermarkets, hospitals, doctors, petrol stations, dairies. Hardware stores are open for trade staff only, not the general public. Appliance stores have just been allowed to trade - but only online or over the phone, they can't open their stores, and they are only allowed to sell selected products (like in case someone's washing machine gives up the ghost and they need a new one). That's really about it. And we are only 8 days into what's going to be at least 4 weeks long. We also had our highest number of new cases today (89) so the plateau of the last 5 days has broken and we're back on an upwards trajectory again.
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Post by roscoe on Apr 2, 2020 13:33:48 GMT
Death toll in Spain now over 10,000. Jesus.
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Post by hithere on Apr 3, 2020 3:22:23 GMT
Terrifying.
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Post by sydneyfan on Apr 6, 2020 23:51:09 GMT
Grim news about Boris
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Post by roscoe on Apr 7, 2020 12:06:35 GMT
Sorry to sound callous but it's hard to have much sympathy for him.
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