It's been a year since Australia's rolling coronavirus lockdowns began. Here's what we've loved, lost and learnt. It's been about a year since the first lockdowns hit in Australia, as governments scrambled to contain the spread of coronavirus.
Since then, there have been see-sawing lockdowns, shutdowns and border closures. We asked you for your stories on our blog. These were some of the themes that emerged. We ached to be close to our families As the pandemic engulfed the world in April, Jamie MacKenzie suggested to her partner maybe it wasn't the best time to be trying to fall pregnant. "But it was already at that point too late. There was never going to be a perfect time to have a first child, but Melbourne's restrictions meant Ms MacKenzie, 25, spent parts of the journey alone. Her parents weren't able to travel over from Perth and her partner was barred from ultrasound appointments after the eighth week, as hospitals restricted visitors. As the due date drew closer, Victoria emerged from its winter lockdown into summer and had a two-month streak without community transmission.
In Spain, the pandemic is killing the nation's most iconic artform — flamenco. Sweat pours from the lead dancer's long, flowing hair as his feet pound the wooden platform in the small cafe.
Next to him, a guitarist strums furiously with his bare fingers while another dancer claps and cries: "Asi se baila! " Confinement: photographic responses to the pandemic. Capt Sir Tom Moore dies at 100 after testing positive for Covid. The Queen has led tributes to Capt Sir Tom Moore, the second world war veteran who raised almost £39m for NHS charities during the first coronavirus lockdown in spring 2020, who has died aged 100 after testing positive for coronavirus.
In a statement, his daughters, Hannah Ingram-Moore and Lucy Teixeira, said: “It is with great sadness that we announce the death of our dear father, Capt Sir Tom Moore. We are so grateful that we were with him during the last hours of his life; Hannah, Benjie and Georgia by his bedside and Lucy on FaceTime. “We spent hours chatting to him, reminiscing about our childhood and our wonderful mother. We shared laughter and tears together. UK: Centenarian fundraiser Captain Tom hospitalised with COVID. He's travelled to 40 countries, now he says travel during the coronavirus pandemic is totally different. It took Kaushik Sridhar seven flights across seven cities, four countries, intense security and two COVID-19 tests to reach India to be by his father's side in intensive care.
After clocking up more than 30,000 kilometres and having to endure seven cancelled flights, he said the long and drawn-out journey was all worth it to see his father's face once again. His dad had been in ICU twice. The first back in November last year with the threat of organ failure, and the second after an infection travelled to his brain, triggering the urgency of Dr Sridhar's visit. Finally home from the month-long ordeal, Dr Sridhar, 37, spoke with the ABC from hotel quarantine in Melbourne, reflecting on the ways travel has changed during the pandemic. It would have normally cost on average $800 for a ticket to India, but this trip cost him more than double, having to fork out up to $4,000. Emirates suspends flights to and from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane after COVID prompts cuts to arrivals.
Hundreds of Australians have been left stranded after major airline Emirates abruptly suspended flights to and from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane indefinitely.
Key points: Emirates will not fly into or out of Brisbane, Melbourne or Sydney after Tuesday next week, citing "operational reasons"It comes after flight caps for international arrivals were halved in NSW, WA and QueenslandMore than 37,000 Australians remain stranded overseas trying to get home The airline made the announcement on Friday evening, confirming its last flight into Brisbane from Dubai would be on Saturday, while the last flights into Sydney and Melbourne would be on Tuesday. The only Emirates flights into Australia will now be twice-weekly ones into Perth from Dubai. In a statement to the ABC, the airline said the flight suspensions were due to "operational reasons", and that it "regrets any inconvenience caused". "Affected customers should contact their travel agent or Emirates contact centre for rebooking options.
" Sydney man stuck in quarantine for 29 days has no end date after UK COVID-19 variant rule change. Sydney software designer Jake Miller has been holed up in a small hotel room for 29 days and he still doesn't know when he will be allowed to leave.
Key points: Mr Miller was given permission to attend his brother's wedding in the US, when his brother was diagnosed with cancerHe tested positive to COVID after three days in hotel quarantineMr Miller now has to wait for genomic testing and a medical review before he can leave "That's the mentally wearing part of it, you can't even set expectations, you can't make plans outside of it anymore," he said.
Family grieves for 13-year-old Anna as COVID-19 deaths surge in US. She holds herself together well.
She even smiles and jokes with me on video chat as she tries to find a quiet room for us to talk. But the unimaginable grief of losing a child is written all over her face. How I was accidentally sectioned into a psych ward during the coronavirus lockdown - ABC News. The two worst things that happened to me during the March COVID lockdown were: 1.Accidently getting sectioned into a psych ward; and2.Forgetting to set the at-home eyebrow dye timer and spending a full month as Groucho Marx.
In all honesty, it was the eyebrow thing that caused me the most grief. Kicked out during coronavirus — a comic about finding a new home in a pandemic. Updated 27 May 2020, 5:45amWed 27 May 2020, 5:45am The last thing I needed during this global pandemic was for the owner of our Melbourne rental home to sell up.
In the rollercoaster weeks that followed, I was juggling — and balls were falling. But this crisis ended up having a pretty big silver lining. (To read a transcript of this comic, jump to here.) The laws referred to in this comic are relevant to Victoria. Melbourne's coronavirus lockdown brings pleasures as well as challenges for children and families - ABC News. After about half a year under varying degrees of social restrictions, Melburnians have become depressingly familiar with life under lockdown.
The city is starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel, as case numbers keep falling, bringing the lifting of restrictions closer each day. When those restrictions were first imposed in early August, the ABC invited a diverse group of Melburnians to record video diaries of their experience under lockdown. Among the contributors were a number of parents and children, who together highlighted some of the complex and contradictory ways the lockdown has made family life more connected, and more strained.
Some families are thriving during lockdown Maidstone man Jorge De Araujo may be among the minority of Melburnians who feel like their lives have improved under stay-at-home orders. "I actually don't have anything bad to say about it because I feel really good, really happy," he said. "My wife and I took turns. Coronavirus hits carnival industry hard, with show families facing 'grim' future - ABC News. Behind brand Byron Bay: How coronavirus exposed the town's weakness. Kathrin has been 'brainwashed' by a nation before — now she's worried her friends are becoming 'converts' - ABC News.
Kathrin has been 'brainwashed' by a nation before — now she's worried her friends are becoming 'converts' - ABC News. Australians' feelings around coronavirus depend on what state they're from — and this data shows it - ABC News. From Dogs in Space to The Castle: exploring locked-down Melbourne through film. Which film best represents Melbourne in its current state? I pondered this one evening recently during what felt like the millionth week in lockdown, the wheels of my beloved home city having slowed to a virtual halt during this lonely era of the coronavirus. I concluded that the answer must be Stanley Kramer’s 1959 post-apocalyptic drama On the Beach, which famously depicts Melbourne CBD as a ghost town – one ominously compelling image capturing a large banner, waving in the breeze outside an abandoned State Library, bearing the words “THERE IS STILL TIME… BROTHER”.
And which films best represent where the population is at emotionally? If you’re one of the reasonable folk, viewing lockdown as a sad but necessary experience, the title of Paul Cox’s 1982 romantic drama might resonate: Lonely Hearts. If you’re feeling more morose, maybe the title of Pino Amenta’s 1988 cancer drama is more apt: Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
All the titles you’ll see in this article were filmed in this city. What it's like being a pathology worker during the COVID pandemic - ABC News. International students going through 'hell' trying to survive Melbourne's coronavirus lockdown - ABC News. I was infected with coronavirus in March, six months on I’m still unwell. It’s day 182 after being infected by Covid-19, and Charlie Russell is not doing the things that other 27-year-olds are doing. He’s not running 5km three times a week like he used to. He’s not going to the pub. Hola Melbourne, think the stage 4 coronavirus lockdown restrictions are tough? Spare a thought for Chile - ABC News. Marcela Paz González from Chile has a message for Melburnians who are suffering through the city's stringent stage 4 restrictions.
Key points: Chile has one of the world's longest and most restrictive coronavirus lockdownsIt joins Eritrea, Argentina, Bolivia, Oman and Azerbaijan as nations with the most stringent measuresChileans feeling the stress of lockdown are expressing solidarity with locked-down Melburnians "The only way to get ahead is together," she said, urging everyone to abide by the myriad rules that come with a tough approach by governments trying to reign in coronavirus. Ms González and her elderly father are now six months into a hard lockdown in Chile's capital, Santiago, which is one of the world's longest and most restrictive. When the South American nation was hit by an alarming surge in COVID-19 cases in March, schools closed, a curfew was introduced and residents were only allowed out of their homes twice a week to get groceries. In the wake of COVID-19, epidemiologists have found their profession in the spotlight. So how are they coping? - ABC News.
In Chile, life goes on for loved ones after COVID-19. In Chile, life goes on for loved ones after COVID-19 By EVA VERGARA and ESTEBAN FÉLIX September 10, 2020 GMT SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Red-eyed from crying, José Collantes Navarro couldn’t contain himself and crumpled against the wall as he watched his partner being buried at the Catholic Cemetery in Chile’s capital. She had lost the fight against the new coronavirus, while he had survived. For many pandemic survivors and those who lost loved ones, like the 36-year-old Collantes, the tragedy lingers and their lives are never the same. With all our lives changing because of coronavirus, you could be experiencing disenfranchised grief - ABC News. Victoria's coronavirus stage 4 'lifemare' is (hopefully) just a fortnight from ending - ABC News.
An-apology-from-victoria-to-the-rest-of-australia-20200701-p55829. Darwin? The bars re-opened and that was all anyone cared about up there. We were so sure that Premier Dan had asserted his leadership and had got through to everyone with those clear unambiguous messages. "Just stay home. " It should be appearing on a T-shirt soon – large white letters on your choice of 100 per cent pure cotton ethically sourced and sweat-shop free jet-black Tees, all sizes and shapes catered for – his, hers and theirs. What not to say to people in Melbourne lockdown - ABC Life. Telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic shows the 'anti-social loner' autism stereotype is a myth - ABC News. Victorian nurse with coronavirus describes 'devastating' impact of COVID-19 in video - ABC News. 'Selfish and childish' woman arrested after Victorian COVID-19 checkpoint breach. Did Ohio Man Who Called COVID-19 a 'Political Ploy' Die from the Disease?
As governments fight the COVID-19 pandemic, Snopes is fighting an “infodemic” of rumors and misinformation, and you can help. Read our coronavirus fact checks. Submit any questionable rumors and “advice” you encounter. Dad killed by coronavirus after dismissing ‘bulls***’ lockdown as a ‘political ploy’ Wife of coronavirus denier who died from COVID-19 says he would have retracted his claims. Coronavirus: Pastor who decried 'hysteria' dies after attending Mardi Gras. Image copyright Courtesy of family. Coronavirus has stopped Australians from returning home. Here are their stories. I'm a doctor on Melbourne's coronavirus front line. Suppression has failed — we need an elimination strategy now - ABC News. As coronavirus cases surge, we are not 'all Victorians'. You have a chance to avoid our fate - ABC News.
Tom Hanks And Rita Wilson Suffered Completely Different Covid-19 Symptoms. Four Corners goes inside an Australian coronavirus clinic that tests for cases of COVID-19. Updated 6 Apr 2020, 7:49amMon 6 Apr 2020, 7:49am From the road, all you can see are some makeshift barricades and a few printed laminated signs to suggest what goes on inside the COVID-19 Screening Clinic. Four Corners gained access to the testing clinic at the Royal Melbourne Hospital to see first hand what frontline staff and patients are experiencing every day during the crisis.
The hospital's CCTV cameras capture lines of people waiting outside, and hospital corridors full of people waiting to be seen. Around 100 people per day queue up at the clinic to find out if they've contracted the highly contagious and potentially deadly virus that has stopped the world. The clinic has already processed about 4,000 tests. On arrival at the hospital, the sick are met by a nurse who hands out face masks and then escorts them in for a series of questions about their possible exposure to the virus. Patients are led to another checkpoint, where they have their pulse and blood pressure taken. Intensive Care Units working tirelessly, learning from experience, applying new treatments in the battle against COVID-19 - ABC News. Melbourne tower lockdowns expose what it's like to live inside high-density public housing. At 3pm on Saturday, Ikram* was sitting in her flat on the ninth floor of the North Melbourne public tower scrolling through social media when she saw the news.
For the next five days, at least, the 18-year-old and the nine relatives she lives with would be confined to their three-bedroom unit, not even permitted to leave for exercise or to purchase essential supplies. This level of lockdown goes further than the Stage 3 restrictions to be imposed on residents in the rest of Melbourne, who will still be allowed to leave their residence to work, study, care for others, buy supplies and exercise.
It was also introduced without warning, so residents like Ikram, who requires gluten-free food, and her family were unable to purchase supplies to last them through the lockdown period. I covered America's coronavirus outbreak for months. Then I caught the disease - ABC News. Victoria is bracing for more job losses with lockdown reinstated. This is the final part of a series of reports on unemployment in Australia. For six and a half years, Dash Jayasuriya taught English at a university in Victoria but when COVID-19 shut the borders, she was one of the first at her workplace to be let go. Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan hospitalised with coronavirus: Live.
LA's mask factories shut down as hundreds of workers get sick. Francisco Tzul has worked in the Los Angeles garment industry for eight years, sewing clothing on cramped factory floors and struggling to get by on low wages. An undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, Tzul found himself out of work when the pandemic hit in March. So when he heard in May that LA Apparel, a brand run by the former CEO of American Apparel, was hiring workers to make masks, he jumped at the chance.
“Here’s an opportunity, a golden opportunity, I told myself,” he told the Guardian in Spanish. Melbourne's public housing coronavirus lockdown tells a story of two cities - ABC News. Melbourne's public housing towers were locked down with coronavirus. I spent the week testing residents and this is what I saw - ABC News. How Victoria's coronavirus response became a public health 'bushfire' with a second-wave lockdown - ABC News.
'Scared', 'chaos', 'worthless': Generation COVID face their fears for the future. ‘Everything just starts falling apart’: restaurants in Melbourne say second lockdown will be worse. Preeti Chhabra, co-owner of Lolo and Wren cafe in Melbourne’s Brunswick West, has been glued to her phone for the past couple of days. In the hours after Victorian premier Daniel Andrews announced that 10 Melbourne postcodes would revert to stage-three lockdown restrictions until 29 July due to recent outbreaks of Covid-19, she was standing down staff and cancelling food orders to restructure her business again. “The orders have already been made last week based on the activity we had last week,” she told Guardian Australia on Wednesday morning. “A duck order was coming in today for $290; I had to scramble last minute and cancel it.”
Because Lolo and Wren is located in a virus hotspot, on midnight 1 July it jolted back to takeaway-only, just one month after dine-in returned. But Chhabra says this lockdown will be different, delivering a harsher blow to businesses within the affected suburbs. On top of that, businesses have had to invest in staff training and new safety procedures. NYC's Bangladeshi community struggles to cope with coronavirus. I'm a nurse in a deprived area of the UK. Here's the sinister truth about Covid and inequality.
India's richest city Mumbai is rapidly turning into the world's next coronavirus catastrophe - ABC News. India's coronavirus agony: 'I did everything to save my wife and baby' : 'Baffling' observations from the front line. In coronavirus economy, small business owners get creative. Police examine CCTV footage of suspect who spat at UK rail worker who later died. Tributes paid to cab driver who died of Covid-19 after being spat at. 100 Australians have died from coronavirus. Here are some of their stories - ABC News. 'Tears were running all over my face': ICU medics on caring for Covid-19 patients - photo essay. The 'no triangles' rule: House-sharing during the pandemic doesn't need to be prickly. Socially distanced clowning around in coronavirus pandemic.
Reopen Mississippi and open carry rally. Lockdown has made us see the natural world anew – let's not waste it. Neil Ferguson, UK Epidemiologist Who Spearheaded National Lockdown, Resigns As Government Advisor After Breaking Protocol to Meet His Married Lover. Lebanon's Palmyra Hotel has never closed in 133 years but coronavirus is an unprecedented peril. What dreams may come: why you're having more vivid dreams during the pandemic. Coronavirus photos show an unrecognisable Australia in shutdown. Weak with the Spanish flu, my great-grandfather wrote this letter. The coronavirus pandemic gives it a new potency. In Pictures: Lockdown adds to India's slum dwellers' woes. Diary of Samuel Pepys shows how life under the bubonic plague mirrored today's pandemic. The coronavirus 'patient zero' set off a chain of events which upturned the lives of 7 billion people. Coronavirus lockdown takes Bruny Islanders back to a quieter time.
In Pictures: The long road home for India's migrant workers. Coronavirus: Melbourne locals celebrate vivid sunrise 'amid the chaos' Doctor warms hearts by stopping to let patient view sunset - Chinadaily.com.cn. Coronavirus pandemic: Which politicians and celebs are affected? A letter from a frontline nurse at the UK’s Royal Bournemouth Hospital. Coronavirus sends shoppers back to corner stores, but they're battling big supermarkets for supplies. Seven-year-old Greek piano prodigy pens an 'isolation waltz' Doctor's diary: Making rapid life-and-death decisions. College Made Them Feel Equal. The Virus Exposed How Unequal Their Lives Are. Coronavirus: Pacific Explorer cruise ship's crew 'heartbroken' to depart Australia.
Outback communities seen as coronavirus 'safe havens', but tensions growing. Coronavirus: The good that can come out of an upside-down world. Coronavirus: Artania cruise ship stand-off continues in Australia. Coronavirus lockdown in India: ‘Beaten and abused for doing my job’ Coronavirus: Italy sees rapid spread of fake news. Coronavirus: The woman behind India's first testing kit. Australians are sharing random acts of kindness happening during the coronavirus crisis. Coronavirus and you: how your personality affects how you cope and what you can do about it.
: Falsely accused of links to extortion. Stranded abroad as coronavirus closes borders. : Nurse's despair as panic-buyers clear shelves. The undervalued heroes of the coronavirus crisis need our thanks – and our support. Why are the rich and famous getting coronavirus tests while we aren't? Bondi beach closed down after crowds defy ban on gatherings of more than 500 people. Bondi Beach closed over crowds amid coronavirus pandemic. Coronavirus in UK: How many confirmed cases are there in your area?