Another weekend stuck inside, at least the weather has been conducive to not feeling like I am missing out on anything. Plenty of rainfall is perfect for these restrictions noting it will be harder as the weather improves and we are not able to go anywhere. There are some small improvements in the conditions kicking in from midnight tonight. In Melbourne we will be able to exercise an additional hour each day and our curfew will from 9 pm rather than 8 pm.

The new case numbers in Victoria have been decreasing and the regional areas are doing well enough that they look like skipping a few stages on the way to COVID-normal. The numbers for this week from Monday 7th September 2020 to Sunday 13th September are; 36, 41, 73, 40, 39, 33, 35. The numbers of deaths for the week has reduced as well with a total of 57 recorded for the week. All in all the trends have been going in the right direction.

The discussion points around the week have been that of protests, the road map to ease restrictions and heavy handed police action including their treatment of media covering the protest. The road map has escalated into conversations where it has been discovered that some of the course of actions have been at odds to advice including the curfew which neither the Chief Health Officer or the Police had advised or asked for, leaving questions to be asked of the premier of why we have a curfew in place.

In Queensland, with an election looming there has been pressure placed on the premier to ease their border restrictions. It has come to light that many compassionate requests to cross the border have been denied yet professional footballers can come and go as they need. One such case was a family with 4 young children who were denied access across the border to visit their terminally ill father, and then told only one of them could cross and would have to quarantine. This was changed that the 4 children could cross and would still have to quarantine at a cost of $16000. A go fund me page was set up and more than enough funds were raised including a donation of $1000 from the Prime Minister Scott Morrison. The Queensland chief health officer admitted that money talked for entry into Queensland, which is why footballers can come in a overseas movie crews including Tom Hanks, who had caught corona virus in Queensland back in March whilst filming the Elvis biopic. Another ridiculous example of lack of compassion was entry being denied to a nurse from the ACT again for palliative reasons. Her father passed away whilst in quarantine and now she can’t stay for the funeral and has to go home as the reason for entry has changed. Noteworthy is that the ACT has not had a new case in 59 days at the time.

Spring is here and even when the not so nice weather is here the difference in warmth from a month ago is appreciated.

7th September 2020 11:14 am POL-AIR on its rounds making sure we are good little Vegemites.