This was to be a post that ruminated on Melbourne opening up again after the long lockdown last year. It was to be about how we have are living without community transmission but are still living in a Covid pandemic. I even wrote this paragraph a couple of weeks ago:
We are still living in horribly uncertain times. The nightly news has glimpses of hope (hello President Joe Biden's vaccination rollout) and then despair (India's Covid situation is just so awful). Having a Covid vaccine so soon is pretty amazing but it is not the silver bullet we all had been looking for. And here in Australia we are living a comparatively easy life (mostly) free of Covid but we long to return to our natural habitat where international travel is part of life, we are not separated from loved ones, our universities are busy with students, we don't even have to think about the risks of the Astra Zenica vaccine, and we are not plagued with the uncertainty of when and if this all will end. I sometimes wish to live without all the social distancing notices, QR sign-in codes, endless bottles of hand sanitizer.
At the time of writing, it was a few months since our last community
covid transmission. But life changes fast with Covid. Now we are back in lockdown. It was to be just a circuit breaker lockdown week. It is likely to extend beyond Thursday as we are seeing huge queues for testing (and vaccinating), identification of a staggering 320 "public exposure sites" and now there is a case in Sydney. So I am publishing this post with a note of nostalgia and a hope that soon we will be back to Covid normal again.
The remains of Covid Lockdown 2.0 in Melbourne:
Christmas in the time of Covid (supermarket, bike shop and Myer Christmas Windows):
Welcome back Melbourne signs:
Covid normal:
Covid Signs in Sydney (Airport and Coogee)
More Covid signs:
- Covid19 lockdown reflections and signs (June 2020)
- Covid19 lockdown reflections and signs 2.0 (November 2020)
I like the sanitizing owl.
ReplyDeleteIndeed how things change quickly. The contrast in the signs: from opening to lockdown again, which i am sorry to learn. I think there may be a third lockdown here in the UK, although there is stil talk to open England on the 21/23 June. I have still been living as if i am living in the first lockdown, having only gone out twice last month. Once for my vaccine and second for another reason, that was not shopping. ps I am liking the Empathy Equity image. Thank you as always for sharing.
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