Luke wrote: ↑Sat Sep 19, 2020 4:33 am
As of today, Australia is:
21 New cases (Sep 19)
1313 Active cases
23721 Recovered
844 Deaths
Population: 26,000,000
Here in Western Australia we have 3 active cases. Has been around 3 - 5 active cases for as many weeks as I can remember now. We’ve had no community spread for over 150 days. The only Covid cases in the state are people returning from overseas.
Everyone returning from overseas is immediately tested and placed in hotel quarantine for two weeks. For a long time this was paid for by the govt, however now I think anyone who has taken this long to get home has to pay for it themselves.
It’s been this way since March and it has worked. The Western Australia borders have been closed to the rest of Australia since around the same time, and as much as this has pissed some people off, our lack of cases and deaths speaks for itself.
Life is normal here, there are essentially no restrictions in place. Nothing ever really locked down, just bars and restaurants closed and people were asked to work from home where possible.
I lost my job in March and received govt payments. I got a new (better) job in July.
We’re just reaching the end of the Australian Rules Football season. Teams have played in hubs around the country in the least-effected states. Here in Perth we’ve had games with up to 30,000 fans for the last couple of months. Games in other states have had around a thousand.
My son has played ten weeks of junior football and had his last game today. He’ll be starting cricket soon for the summer.
Schools have been back since I think May. They shut a week early for the easter break and stayed closed an extra week (4 weeks total), are a couple of weeks away from finishing the second full term since then.
Just about everyone who worked from home had returned to their workplaces now, except those who’ve realised they don’t need to.
Shops are busy and people are spending money. We took my mum to Ikea today and it was absolutely fucking packed.
There have been more than enough testing here, they ran out of people to test. They had criteria for testing early on such as flu like symptoms and had recently been overseas etc, then before long they were testing anyone who fancied having one. There is no cost for being tested.
I’m not saying all this to brag. Just highlighting what it could have been like everywhere under smart government who listened to the medical experts and were willing to spend the money to pay people to stay home.