The whole of New South Wales is now in lockdown

Hi Pippa, I’m unsure of the vaccination program in NSW, but here now everyone aged 12 and over has been invited to make an appointment to have the first jab and start the process. Our eldest grandson is 12 and he had his 1st last week. Already talk here re the booster purchase. I do feel for you and so many families separated, and separated for so long. You’ll be hanging out for a visit as soon as it’s possible. As you say we’re heading into the warmer months, with a little luck borders may begin to creak open. What a joyous day for untold numbers if air travel is able to restart and reunions will indeed be sweet. Best wishes.

Oh, and I haven't seen my GCs for two and a half years or my son for one and half but we are all well and surely that's what matters.

Because of the smaller population they are aiming a a very quick target of 80% and then 90%. They are also vaccinating over 12s I believe. All this and NSW, (and obviously Australia as a whole) is going into the summer.

They will be as fine as we all are and possibly more so.

Hi nanna8, we’ve heard how hard it’s been in Melbourne, repeated lockdowns are not easy and you’re left wondering when all this will enable us to return to life as it used to be. Frustrating when you see folks becoming complacent. Yes, we’re in the South Island, so far have dodged Delta. I say so far, because who’s to say what tomorrow or next week may bring?
Cafes hairdressers etc reopening this week, masks mandatory in shops public travel and enclosed spaces. Masks and specs are NOT compatible ?, however, that’s the ruling for now. Good luck in your fight against the virus, surely at some stage there will be life after Covid??‍♀️ I’ll give you a wave as we pass mid-air….there’s positive thinking for you lol

Elsbeth I am in the UK and have not seen my daughter who lives in Europe for 2 years and still no idea when we can see her. Its too awkward with tests and rules changing frequently from country to
country.
We till have tens of thousands of new cases daily with over 100 dying every day. These are difficult times,

Well, I'm in Sydney and still in lockdown since June. My daughter lives 290kms away and because of State border closures I havent seen her since June. There are many people around Sydney who are not doing the right thing, hence the virus is spreading. English as a second language is also a problem.

Denny = Denby

You are in the South Island then, Denny? Lovely, I dream of visiting again one day soon. Our problem here is that peop,e-card so sick of the overly harsh restrictions that many are ignoring them. Witness the streams of traffic leaving Melbournevto go to country areas coming out of lockdown. We are really only supposed to travel 5 km max.

I think wherever you live you will not have been unaffected by Covid. Some lockdowns have been longer with greater restrictions, whilst others have allowed more movement. Taking politics out of it, I completely agree with the stance our PM has taken here in NZ.
Perfect, of course it’s not, for many businesses large and small it’s been diabolical, but it’s the best option bearing in mind our health service would likely collapse in the face of an outbreak running rampant as seen in other countries.
Vaccination is progressing, could/should we have a greater percentage of the population fully vaccinated ideally yes, but this isn’t an ideal world.
I make the point that supermarkets, chemists, petrol stations, doctors, and what we call dairy’s have remained open. Only recently, due to the arrival of the delta variant, some supermarkets in Auckland have been closed for deep cleaning after being visited by shoppers believed to be possible contacts, and staff employed there have been asked to isolate, leaving some supermarkets closed temporarily due to staff shortages. We have been fortunate in the south, Auckland with its greater population, not so much so. Maybe in future we will have to live with Covid. I see this is NOT a ‘one size fits all’ approach scenario. For the last 12 months or so we have enjoyed freedoms not enjoyed by many other countries. Time alone will tell if Ms Ardern’s directives are right for our country, my country.

love0c, my son and his family are in NSW and it doesn't sound any worse than we have had. That doesn't stop them from having a bit of a whinge but they know that they are very lucky to have got away with it for so long.

I think we can wallow in other people's supposed misery if we aren't careful.

Nanna8 Sounds absolutely awful for you. One of my adult children has friends in both Australia and New Zealand. Both have said how 'authoritarian' it is and indeed are looking to come back home to live and work asap.

There were ‘hard measures’ here in the UK. Though not quite as hard as New Zealand. My daughter tells me that at level 4 in New Zealand they don’t allow take away food outlets to open, which we did allow here in the UK. And they can only order essential items online, so very little internet shopping.

The rest of the world hasn't managed without "hard measures" nanna8. You have just not noticed the difficulties when they affected others. It is challenging the empathise when you are not going through it. However, not so difficult to have the knowledge that it's happening. I wonder how you missed that?

Your country is trying to increase the speed and level of vaccination. Once that is done the people of Australia will be on a level with most other first-world countries. We are very lucky to live where this is possible and not in a second or third-world country. Once vaccinated you and the rest of the population of Australia will be going into your summer; that should help.

Another 3 weeks of hell just announced. We are heading towards a whole year. How come the rest of the world manages without Victoria’s hard measures? I stand by my comment, people here are really suffering. They don’t have stiff upper lips.

nanna8

We haven’t lived normally for a long time in Victoria and have had the harshest lockdowns in the world. The mental health situation amongst youngsters is absolutely dire but what can you do ? So many deaths from suicide, more than Covid. So sad. Comments about stiff upper lips don’t help a nd just illustrate how uncaring and thick skinned some are. I don’t care for me, I have had a good life but for the young ones and those with small businesses it is heartbreaking.

We have all had to go through this. I know my family in Australia are finding it more difficult this time but they seem to be aware that their experience is not exceptional.

What a nasty and unnecessary comment.

It really is truly unbelievable isn’t it henetha.

They said the same here nanna8, about the suicides, that's Scotland I mean, but it turned out that it hadn't actually made a difference. Not that I'm minimising the impact on young people, not at all.

My cousin has just been posting on Facebook ranting about the protesters. I can see her point!

Algerias it depends what you take as your source and you may be right. I hope so. What I read was that the rate of attempted youth suicides has gone up by 184 % here in Victoria since Covid according to the kids helpline. Hopefully they were unsuccessful and remain so. What is upsetting is the blanket approach with no finesse where areas with no Covid in country areas ( indeed here where we live, outer suburbs) come under the same heavy restrictions. We can’t see our families, we can’t go out at night. I don’t care about shops being closed so much - though it is really hard for the traders. We cannot visit the sick, go to funerals etc. Helicopters flit around checking for miscreants. Horrible.

nanna8

We haven’t lived normally for a long time in Victoria and have had the harshest lockdowns in the world. The mental health situation amongst youngsters is absolutely dire but what can you do ? So many deaths from suicide, more than Covid. So sad. Comments about stiff upper lips don’t help a nd just illustrate how uncaring and thick skinned some are. I don’t care for me, I have had a good life but for the young ones and those with small businesses it is heartbreaking.

My cousin lives in Melbourne. Its s***, definitely. And it was s*** here too. And lots of other places.

We all think we have it worse than everybody else and tell people how awful its been.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1753-6405.13132

Results: The frequency of Victorian suicides did not change following the onset of COVID-19.

We haven’t lived normally for a long time in Victoria and have had the harshest lockdowns in the world. The mental health situation amongst youngsters is absolutely dire but what can you do ? So many deaths from suicide, more than Covid. So sad. Comments about stiff upper lips don’t help a nd just illustrate how uncaring and thick skinned some are. I don’t care for me, I have had a good life but for the young ones and those with small businesses it is heartbreaking.

Jacinda, like all political leaders, has her enemies, but on the whole she is excellent and her locking down policy has resulted in 26 deaths in total!
I would exchange her any day for the outfit we have here.

Here in Scotland, which has the same population roughly as NZ, has clocked up over 8 thousand deaths.
My DFiL died from covid 19 which he contracted in hospital where he was being treated for an infection. It was a terrible time.
Nicola hasn't been able to lock Scotland up she probably would have liked to

My DS and his family are in NZ and have lived almost normally for the past 18 months. Work and schools operating as usual. The vaccines are rolling out now.

My friends in Perth, both aged 70, told me this morning that they are still waiting for their first vaccination.

I also believe Jacinda Adhern is not the saint she has been made out to be.

A friend on N Island whom we visited just before all this happened has said that she and ot hers she knows have not been happy with Jacinda Ardern's policies - isolation could not continue indefinitely and a proper vaccination programme needed to be put in place.

With a population half the size of London over a country larger than GB but with good infrastructure, a vaccination programme surely should have been far further advanced than it is.

BlueBelle, thank for addressing your comment to me. I have been concerned about my daughter before she left, as working in the NHS during the pandemic made her (and many others) very stressed. They decided to go to New Zealand for two years for a different life experience and to work in a different health care system. She was excited about working with the Maori people as it will be a very different experience. If New Zealand goes down the road of repeated lockdowns she will become disillusioned. I also believe Jacinda Adhern is not the saint she has been made out to be. Utter complacency comes to mind. She has foolishly believed that closed borders would protect them until such time as they vaccinated the population, and whilst that may have been good policy whilst there was no vaccine, it is beyond pathetic for the whole of this year. Their population is less than 5 million for goodness sake. How can a rich country have failed to vaccinate so many? Only approximately 20% vaccinated. Interestingly I saw Jacinda on the news programme the other day, receiving her second vaccine. Well of course, she’ll make sure she’s protected whilst several million of her countrymen/women languish unvaccinated, with their businesses failing due lack of tourism (my daughter has told me how cross/upset many business owners are as they rely on tourism) and whilst many New Zealanders are unable to even return to NZ and others unable to make any plans to see family members in other parts of the world. Australia is pretty much in the same boat as I understand it.

I thought it was supposed to be the "poms" who whinged!
? that's a myth perpetuated by Australians!