Perth and the south west of the state are in total lockdown for five days to allow tracing of contacts of a security guard from one of the quarantine hotels who has tested positive for COVID 19. The only surprise is that this is the first time this has happened since the initial lockdown back at the beginning of the pandemic last year. No school - due to start back tomorrow after the summer holidays - has left Miss I'm Nearly Five in floods of tears. The good thing is that we have been requiring everyone to sign in at many venues for a while so apart from places like supermarkets and other retailers where it wasn't required until a few days ago we have a pretty good idea of who has been where. There's even a handy app for your phone which makes it even easier although the technologically inept like Pisces can physically sign in.
Due to stringent quarantining of incoming folk so far we've been very lucky but anyone with any sense has been well aware that it would take only one infected person to spread the disease. I can't say I'm looking forward to the masking up which is now mandatory, though. I wear glasses and masks and glasses do not go together well. This means as long as masks are compulsory I will be avoiding going out as much as possible even once the lockdown is over. It also means I am very grateful to be living in a time when I can do pretty much all my shopping online. I had just put in a grocery shop order this morning before the news broke - and just as well because it seems people have again collectively lost their minds. Photos put up on the local community page show huge lines of people waiting to get into food shops and apparently the shelves are already being stripped of guess what? Yep, toilet paper, pasta, milk and eggs. The rush has been so intense that some shops have been forced to close their doors. Why do people do this? It's only five days, not weeks.
My only worry is that this panic buying may mean my shopping order won't get filled, not that this will mean we will starve. We have enough necessities to last for several weeks and the shops will stay open anyway so once the rush of panicking shoppers dies down we will be able to get what we need.
It's ironic that this has happened now because only the night before we were at a welcome home party for a family member who has just arrived back in the state and completed her quarantine a few days ago.
Now I'm off to make us some reusable masks. See you on the other side.
2 comments:
Panic shopping is utter madness, but no one said that people have to be rational! Our grocery stores here have early hours for seniors or shoppers requiring assistance. That's how I shop. I am there when the doors open and I am in and out in short order, and at times I have been the only person in the store. I have never ordered groceries on line, nor do I plan to.
I never thought I'd shop online either, David, but I do now because I find walking any distance difficult, not to mention the problem of pushing a loaded shopping trolley. We do have early seniors' shopping hours here which I'll be taking advantage of tomorrow because only part of my order could be processed. The rest was out of stock due to the panic buying.
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