[imagesource: Herald Sun]

Today is day 557 of living under some form of lockdown in South Africa.

Remember when we used to tune into those 8PM addresses to see what fate awaited us?

I recall thinking that 21 days of staying at home would come as a nice excuse to put my feet up and get some reading done.

Simpler times.

Our hard lockdown has long since come and gone, but spare a thought for the city that is about to take the record from Buenos Aires as the city that has spent the most cumulative days under stay-at-home orders.

Have a guess before we reveal the answer.

Over to The Guardian:

As of Tuesday 5 October, Australia’s second-largest city will have been in lockdown for 246 days – overtaking Buenos Aires…

By the time Melbourne’s current lockdown lifts at the end of the month, it will have spent 267 days in lockdown – 45% of the time since the coronavirus pandemic was declared on 12 March 2020.

Lockdown will lift once the vaccination rate gets to 70%, expected around 26 October.

According to Victorian premier Daniel Andrews, just over 50% of those aged 16 and over in the state are fully vaccinated, while 82,6% have now received at least one dose.

To speed up the race to 70%, starting from today the waiting period between Pfizer doses at state-run clinics will go from six weeks to three weeks.

According to The Age, the city’s lockdown can be separated into two outbreaks:

…the first 111-day stretch between July 8 and October 28 last year, and then an ongoing lockdown since August 5 of this year, which has now reached 60 days.

The city also did a 43-day lockdown, along with much of the rest of Australia, in March last year, and has endured three additional snap lockdowns.

At five points since March 12, Melbourne has reduced case numbers to zero, which is a far cry from the current situation.

Victoria reported 1 220 new locally acquired coronavirus cases yesterday, and three deaths.

You might be seeing full sports stadiums on the telly (or 75% full for Saturday’s Rugby Championship clashes), but those are taking place in other parts of the country, like the Gold Coast in the state of Queensland, as well as Perth.

As you can imagine, patience in Melbourne is wearing thin:

Speak to Melburnians and the overwhelming majority say they support the decision of the Andrews government to lock down hard at the first signs of an outbreak.

But opposition to the health measures, while still a minority movement, is growing and has erupted onto the streets. Five thousand people joined a violent omnibus protest last week, fuelled by far-right figures.

It’s not hard to understand the frustrations of those growing tired of stay-at-home orders after all this time.

What is heartening to see is that the state’s vaccination numbers continue to rise at record rates, with residents hoping that the government will uphold its end of the bargain when that 70% threshold is met.

At least they can rely on their health department not to loot funds in the middle of a deadly pandemic.

Must be nice.

[sources:guardian&age]