The Victorian state government announced the four-level restrictions again on Friday, with a “lockdown” lasting five days in the first round, but could be extended. The alarm due to the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus came from a quarantine hotel called the Hotel Inn at Melbourne airport, and by Friday, 13 new infections were detected. There is no misunderstanding, no typos, and after many new cases, the local government has felt the need to start restricting the freedom of movement of people to stop the spread of the virus.
As of midnight Friday, residents of the state were only allowed to leave their homes for four purposes: if they had to buy food to support themselves, if they had a health problem, if they wanted to do outdoor sports for a short time, and if they couldn’t do their job from home.
Robert Belteki, the Australian-Hungarian owner of Budafoki MTE, who just got into NB I football, lives in secluded Melbourne and told us about the local experience over the phone.
“Many Australians come home from abroad and take buses from the airport to the quarantine hotel immediately. Someone has to stay there for two weeks, and some for up to 4 weeks.”
However, the authority handled this situation very poorly, and quarantine hotels were not examined at first except by private security guards, so many did not comply with the curfew and spread the virus.
The businessman said the other problem was that the authority wanted to control the movement of isolated people using a QR code over the phone, but that did not work properly either. ”Then he continued,“ Tasmania or New South Wales and Queensland have dealt with the epidemic, there is already an economic performance. At pre-virus levels, there are few reports of disease.
There are cities where no Coronavirus has been infected in months, yet they must be closed now.
In contrast, here in our south, in Victoria, this is the fourth lockdown of its kind since the outbreak of the Coronavirus. Last summer was the first major scandal related to coronavirus treatment: Hundreds of elderly people died from infection in various care homes. Then the situation improved, and the number of new infections was less than 10 per day by Friday, which is not very high in a country with a population of 24 million.
However, on Friday, Victorian Prime Minister Daniel Andrews announced a drastic change due to the high number of infections.
Crowds rushed to the stores
“Since then, we can only leave our home for a maximum distance of 5 kilometers. If we only want to move, do we have to go to buy the necessary food, or if we cannot work from home.”
People rushed to grocery stores with toilet paper, toothpaste and tens of thousands, after Friday’s 17-hour announcement that ordered a midnight shutdown. There were no fights, but being inside was not very comfortable.
We can only allow our relatives to enter our home, only one person at a time. In Melbourne, stores, cafes, restaurants and department stores are closed. Weddings have also been banned, not even by those who have been planning for months. Professional sporting events are taking place, but without fans, even the children’s football matches have been canceled.
The city center is completely empty: When I went to the office on a Saturday morning to fetch my stuff, I could barely see someone alive on the street, despite the roughly 1.5 million people living in the city center alone. “
Robert Beltecki gave a status report. The fact that the Valentine’s craze is lagging behind means hundreds of millions of dollars in lost sales, he added. That’s what remains, given that many store owners have had to keep it closed for so long even before the stricter restrictions in place since Friday, there’s a good chance the curtains will be pulled out permanently. No wonder some Melbourne residents took to the streets.
Locals cannot stay in public places without a mask, it is not new to us Hungarians. As in most parts of Europe, students in Melbourne do not go to school, study online, and only workers who cannot work from home enter offices. Only two people per square meter can travel on public transport. This is the reason most people drive. Sporting events are held without an audience, including the current Australian Open. Organizers float up to blow up the entire tournament, with one player giving a positive test.
More and more Victorians believe that the government has handled the situation scandalously, not paying enough attention to defense, and this has culminated in the current lockdown.
There were only 8 new infections, yet the scope was completely closed. The government didn’t stop at closing restaurants and shops, and flights couldn’t get to Australia, so a lot of people were stuck abroad. The governorate leadership does not want to help them in this situation. “
Robert Beltecki believes that as long as there are flaws in the system that he also tested during his domestic travels, there won’t be much change in defense, so the harsh restrictions will end in vain on Thursday.
When I recently flew from Melbourne to Sydney, the passengers were not checked in any way before take off: there was no temperature measurement or PCR test. Anyone who may already be infected can move very freely.
(Cover photo: Reuters.Photo: Sandra Sanders)
