As of midday tomorrow, cafes and restaurants in Australia are closed. Places of worship are closed. Clubs and pubs and sporting venues are closed.
The day after, Tuesday, school holidays will begin here in Victoria, 3 days early. They might reopen as scheduled 3 weeks later, but that will be subject to medical advice. I doubt they will.
We are entering a 6 month period of living our lives very, very differently, we were just told by Australia's Chief Medical Officer in a press conference with the Prime Minister.
Two weekends ago we headed away to Ocean Grove for a few days with my parents, my sister and her family, including baby Rudy who is 3 months old tomorrow. That's when these photos were taken. (The girls adore him by the way, particularly Emma who still regularly asks me 'where Rudy?') I don't think I'd even heard of Social Distancing then, or the need to Flatten the Curve. Coronovirus was something that was happening elsewhere. Not anymore.
After a weekend where many people flouted requests to follow new Social Distancing guidelines - keep 1.5 metres away from others, no gatherings of 500 or more outside, no gatherings of 100 or more indoors, 4 square metres of space per person required in an enclosed space - and the number of confirmed cases here in Australia continued to rise sharply, Phase One of restrictions are coming into effect nationally.
We're receiving some conflicting advice at the moment, with the Victorian Premier announcing in a press release earlier today that "Victoria will proceed over the next 48 hours to implement a shutdown of all non-essential activity across our state to combat the spread of Coronavirus", while the Prime Minister is limiting the closures to places of social gatherings. There is obvious disagreement about school closures (federally schools remain open with parents being able to keep children home at their discretion) but at least on that topic the Prime Minister articulated Victoria's plan. Tomorrow we will find out whether Victoria is implementing much tougher restrictions or falling into line with the PM. This disharmony between state and federal government is just incredible. Tasmania and South Australia have closed their borders, in addition to the Australian borders being closed.
It has been such an odd week or so, watching the situation unfold. It felt like world was changing under my feet, feeling so off-kilter and swinging between thinking that I'm overreacting or not doing enough. For all the amusement/distraction/hysteria of toilet paper shortages, I was so conscious of the economic disaster that is pending.
I had reasonable financial expectations of my photography business this year, but enquiries disappeared. I don't think I will get a booking for months but, as silly as it might sound, this has occurred at a 'good' time for me. A year earlier and this might have wreaked my enthusiasm and confidence, a year later and we might have been relying on the income.
Mike works for an airline and will find out tomorrow what his (initial) stand down period will be. He expects somewhere between 4 to 6 weeks. We feel so grateful that money isn't going to be a huge concern. We'll be conscious and considered in our spending but we should be fine. Seeing the impacts to both small businesses and huge businesses, the event and tourism industries implode... The extent of this economically, even in best case scenarios for the spread of the virus, is staggering.
At least with the Phase One restrictions announced tonight, the closure of places of social gatherings including restaurants and cafes, it takes away ambiguity. Life right now needs to change. Movements must be restricted. In-person interactions must be limited. As much as I want to support the local cafe or small business, that's not possible in person right now.
Milly, who is 4 now, came home from kinder on Monday telling me that there were germs making people sick and now sings Happy Birthday (two times she says) as she washes her hands. I hope we can keep her at that level of informed but not concerned.
There is no doubt that this is a historic, world-altering event. Even in these early stages, it feels like things aren't going to fit back together quite as we left them. That's why I wanted to write this tonight. Here, now, this is what I'm thinking. Feeling.
I don't think I have written anything here about the health side of the Coronovirus pandemic, but I have a horrible feeling it wont stay that way.
As of this morning: 1098 confirmed cases in Australia, with 229 of those in Victoria. That figure had jumped 224 overnight.
