Living with COVID-19

The first indication that we were getting involved with this situation in our area was the run on specific goods at the local supermarkets.
Their managements tried to reduce the impact by limiting the number of items purchased and introducing seniors’ shopping hours.
All too late.
Shortages are still ongoing. And suddenly there is another new item on ‘the list’. Fresh meat is now one. Paracetamol and Ventolin inhalers were others.
Then there are the unconfirmed stories spreading through rural communities. Busloads of city people (Asian of course, to add a bit of racism spice) are raiding country supermarkets and stripping the shelves bare. This has been proven to be untrue. Even so, some supermarkets in our region are only letting locals in and IDing customers at the door.
The incidence of virus infection has taken off in Australia over the last couple of weeks.

The government has basically shut down the borders to all but citizens and permanent residents and even some states,eg. Tasmania, have restricted access to residents only.
Of course there are SNAFUs. A cruise ship, Ruby Princess, with four virus cases on board docked in Sydney and 2700 passengers were let disembark without testing.
The government is insisting on 14 day self isolation for people coming in from overseas and for those who have had contact with carriers, limited group gathering numbers eg. no sport spectators, and social distancing.
The latter has not been adhered to in a major way at famous Bondi Beach in Sydney. The picture below is from last Friday.

However threats were made to lockdown areas where the rules were being thwarted and the result is seen at the same beach yesterday.

We are practising self isolation. Easy enough on our rural property. We have enough food for a couple of weeks, enough wine for a month but very limited TP. Any top up shopping and hopefully medications, can be sourced in our small beachside shopping centre.
It is rumoured 10 people from a local club were passengers on the ship mentioned above and have returned home. Whether they are abiding by the 14 day self isolation rule, who knows. So that’s even more incentive to stay away from town.
The area’s major centre, Nowra, an hour’s drive to the north already has confirmed cases.
It’s creeping up on us!
Time to deep clean the house and get all those long postponed DIY projects done.
The honeydo list is quite long.

Update: 23rd March
Things have moved fast in the last 24 hours.
Non essential services will now be shut down.
Additional states, Queensland and Western Australia, have closed their borders

Here is what is closed from 12pm Monday (today):

Pubs, registered and licenced clubs (excluding bottle shops attached to these venues), hotels (excluding accommodation).

Gyms and indoor sporting venues.

Cinemas, entertainment venues, casinos and nightclubs.

Restaurants and cafes will be restricted to takeaway and/or home delivery.

Religious gatherings, places of worship, funerals (in enclosed spaces and other than very small groups and where the 1 person per 4 square metre rule applies).

Retail stores remain open. Shopping centres remain open. As do hairdressers, dentists, doctor surgeries, post offices.

The indoor gathering rules apply to those services and stores still open. No more than one person per 4 sqm and a maximum of 100 people. Keep your distance – at least 1.5m away from people.