New South Wales state had already adopted that measure, but then at almost the same time that Queensland introduced it, New South Wales dropped it.
It’s the various states in Australia that decide on anti-COVID measures, not the nation, so measures differ a lot between states.
While there were almost no cases in Queensland, that might explain why in mid-December, once we started letting people in from other states (under certain conditions), omicron spread like wildfire so that as of January 14th there were more than 170,000 cases in Queensland alone, then five days later on January 19th, there were more than 240,000 cases, and the number of cases across Australia soon ballooned to 1,800,000.
It’s just unbelievable that on December 7th there was only one person with COVID in Queensland. Now so many neighbors, friends, acquaintances, workmates have caught COVID that it’s quite normal to wonder when you too are going to get it. And despite the number of cases rising so high, perhaps it’s because we know that the symptoms are mild if you catch the omicron variant that on January 15th the Queensland Government opened the state border completely for the first time in about two years (previously you needed to obtain a permit, called a border pass, to enter) and they predict that case numbers will increase even further.
Because you can’t go to work if you are positive, you must isolate at home, so with such large numbers of cases, there have been staff shortages in the shops, which has meant quite a few shops have had to close temporarily.
And a shortage of labor among the transportation companies is causing continued shortages of products in supermarkets. Stock levels are all over the place, some products aren’t sold out while others are, like toilet paper and tissues, as usual. It’s as though when the situation suddenly changes, people’s first thought is to stock up on toilet paper.
This time there are plenty of masks and hand sanitizer, so much so that you can get them at just about any shop.
Something that surprised me was the completely bare shelves in the meat section at the supermarket. I had never seen bare shelves in the meat section since coming to Australia, so I just had to take a photo as a record.
Some of the freezer sections were completely empty, and there was a little stock left in the seasoning, pasta, snack, and detergent sections. Someone I know who works at a supermarket told me they have been very busy because of staff shortages and things aren’t running normally. Even the prices of vegetables have started rising, and everyone is anxious about how long things will go on like this.
We’re all just hoping that this outbreak settles down soon, that we can get back to life as normal, and that another variant doesn’t emerge.
Of course, measures to prevent transmission are important, but I also think it’s always important to look after your health and keep your immunity strong.
As usual, the toilet paper has all gone.
There was a little laundry detergent left
The meat section. There was nothing left apart from chicken schnitzel (fried chicken like chicken cutlet).
The chilled section for cheeses and so on was almost bare too.
Aussies love eating dips with crackers.
This supermarket has a whole dip section, but it was completely bare, except for one item.
