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MELBOURNE: Business development manager in world’s most locked-down city reveals relief to hit play on life

In this special series ordinary people across the world share stories of their struggle to survive in a pandemic world. Late in 2019, a mysterious illness emerged at a seafood and poultry market in the sprawling capital of Central China’s Hubei province. The growing outbreak was reported to the World Health Organisation on December 31, which confirmed a novel coronavirus was the cause of the respiratory illness in a cluster of people on January 12, 2020. COVID-19 was first confirmed to have reached Australia when a man who returned from Wuhan on January 19 tested positive in Victoria six days later. That same day, a further three men with Wuhan connections tested positive in New South Wales. On March 1 Perth man James Kwan, 78, died at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, making him the first Australian to succumb to the illness. Mr Kwan had been a passenger on the ill-fated Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan when he contracted the virus. He and his wife Theresa were two of 164 Australians who were evacuated to Darwin’s Howard Springs quarantine facility after 10 passengers tested positive for COVID-19. The two were transferred to Perth on February 21 for treatment. James died, but his wife Theresa survived. The first cases of community transmission were recorded in NSW the next day. As cases continued to climb, the Australian Government began to introduce measures to slow the spread of the virus, including the establishment of contact tracing and testing services, border controls, physical distancing, and business and school closures. On March 29, 2700 passengers from the Ruby Princess cruise ship disembarked in Sydney despite some showing symptoms of the virus. Within weeks 663 of them had tested positive for COVID-19 and 28 died. An inquiry into the debacle later found NSW Health had made “serious”, “inexcusable” and “inexplicable” mistakes in its handling of the sick ship. By May the curve had been flattened and lockdowns across the country began to lift. The second wave hit the country in June, and restrictions were reinstated in Victoria where new COVID clusters emerged. Premier Dan Andrews admitted there had been “unacceptable infection control breaches in hotel quarantine”, referencing the Victorian Government’s decision to put private security contractors with limited training in charge of hotel quarantine. Lockdowns were extended until October 26 when the State recorded zero new cases and zero deaths for the first time since June 6. The nationwide vaccination program was launched in February this year. The rollout has been widely criticised for its confused and sluggish progress, prompting Grattan Institute health program director Stephen Duckett to label it a “sh..storm” and “one of the worst in the world”. The highly infectious Delta variant afflicting much of the world hit in June 2021, marking Australia’s third COVID wave. Deaths hit quadruple digits by the end of August and continue to mount as the wave lashes the nation. Surging infections in NSW and then Victoria pushed a renewed drive to ramp up vaccination numbers. As of October 18, 70 per cent of Australians have been double dosed, with the numbers varying between States and Territories. NSW and the ACT have fully vaccinated 81 per cent of their respective populations, Tasmania 69 and Victoria 68. Both South Australia and the Northern Territory have hit the 59 per cent mark, Queensland 57 and WA trails behind on 56 per cent. The vaccination push has been of particular importance to Victoria. With six lockdowns under its belt totalling 262 days, Melbourne is the most locked-down city in the world. But at midnight tonight its epic run is set to come to an end in line with the State reaching its 70 per cent vaccination target. On the eve of the lift in restrictions, childcare business development manager Ms Jie — who asked for her full name to be withheld — reveals her relief to be able to hit play on life again. Here is her story. MS JIE, 40, CHILDCARE BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER, MELBOURNE ‘Our lives have been on pause so long’ I worry for Victorians’ mental health, livelihoods, the arts community, and I particularly have empathy for the families that are homeschooling. Our lives have been on pause for so long. I think Victoria’s State Government has done its best to contain the virus, and this pandemic has frustrated even the most patient of us. The economic response by the Federal Government has also helped with JobKeeper and now disaster payments — possibly too much at first and now too little with the Delta strain. ‘It has been very isolating’ Since the pandemic began Victoria had focused on containment and we did an amazing job at getting the numbers down, but also lived with constant anxiety and sacrificed a lot of our lifestyle for the good of the community and health care workers. With the subsequent mutation of the Delta strain I could see an increase in untraceable cases, and just knew we could not keep the number of cases down once we saw them rising. It has been very isolating, but I am more connected with my neighbours and virtual work colleagues. My personal life has become slower-paced and I terribly miss weekends away. We have commenced booking campsites in anticipation of further easing of restrictions in December, so my partner and I are really looking forward to travelling. ‘I was hesitant to get the jab at first’ It was very easy to book both jabs. For me, at first I was hesitant to get the vaccine and thought we had time to wait. The numbers were relatively low compared to the rest of the world. My turning point was when we couldn’t contain the Delta strain as effectively as the initial COVID-19 virus. I looked at how other countries managed COVID, and read the information on vaccines and on pandemics that have happened in the past. From that point I decided to have the vaccine, and now I am looking forward to the ease of restrictions for all Victorians. ‘We are so beyond excited!’ Right now we are waiting for restrictions to ease and anticipating higher COVID numbers in the community. The 15km radius is in place, exercise for up to four hours a day, and picnics of no more than five people who are fully vaccinated. This all eases on Thursday night and we are so beyond excited! Last weekend there were so many people in our local community having picnics and it has been great to see people catching up again. I am glad that our strategy is to open up again, accompanied by a strong message to protect ourselves and others, and to minimise the number of people requiring hospital care. WHO OFFICIAL STATISTICS (AS AT OCTOBER 19, 2021) AUSTRALIA GLOBAL

exclusiveMELBOURNE: Business development manager in world’s most locked-down city reveals relief to hit play on life

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MELBOURNE: Business development manager in world’s most locked-down city reveals relief to hit play on life