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el-trotamundos · 3 years

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Returning to Canada after Melbourne’s strict lockdown has been a shock (and not in the right way)

In mid-October I returned to Canada having spent the better part of 2020 under not one, but two lockdowns of increasing severity in Melbourne. Better acquainted with the four walls of my bedroom than the four corners of the vast Australian continent, my working holiday year had certainly not gone as planned. I’ve been back nearly 7 weeks but it still hasn’t quite sunk in. This house, this city is not where I grew up and they hold no more than holiday memories for me. In limbo, I can’t go back to where I was and yet I’m not sure how to move forward. I am frustrated and sad that the opportunity to live and travel in Australia just evaporated. I feel in some ways like I was never there, that it will go down in my life story as the ‘missing year’.

As the first wave of coronavirus swept the globe, I chose to stay in Melbourne. I’d only just arrived a few months previous and Australia seemed to have a better plan than Canada. The government closed its borders and sent all returning citizens into supervised mandatory quarantine at hotels. Community transmission - to the extent that it even existed - was quickly nipped in the bud and in May only a handful of cases were being reported each day. Things started reopening and although I had lost my job in March, I felt confident I had made the right decision in staying and would be able to find another. Australia, like New Zealand, was a rare success story.

That sense of pride didn’t last long. In June case numbers in Melbourne started to creep upwards. News articles started appearing about breaches at the hotel quarantine sites which allowed the virus to gain a foothold in the community. The return to the restrictions of the first lockdown were gradual - targeting postcodes (mine included) with the highest number of cases. At the beginning of July, the rest of the state joined us. New cases were 100+ and climbing every day but a far cry from the numbers Canada was experiencing and deeming acceptable. But this time the lockdown didn’t work. In August, as case numbers hit the high of 700+ a day, the government implemented its strictest measures yet. There was a night time curfew. Only 1 hour of outdoor exercise per day was permitted and you had to be alone or with members of your immediate household only. Masks were mandatory even if you were just out to walk the dog and you couldn’t be further than 5km away from your home. Rules were enforced with large fines and police and Australian Defence Force personnel patrolled parks and other areas where people might try to gather.

Draconian? Authoritarian? Critics and Twitter bots certainly thought so: the Premier was often referred to as ‘Dictator Dan’. I do not dispute that the economic and mental health cost of Melbourne’s lockdowns was enormous. But it was the only way Victoria could get to the zero or single digit cases that the rest of Australia was enjoying.

Victoria has gone 31 days without a single new COVID case. In contrast, British Columbia announced a record breaking 911 positive cases on 26 November. It’s been incredibly tough to see Instagram stories from friends in Melbourne: they are going to bars, the beach, meeting new people, planning Christmas vacations. Of course we can do all this too in Canada, with limits depending on where you live, but it comes with a COVID risk that does not exist in Australia.

Coming back to BC’s fairly relaxed guidelines was terrifying. Any relief I felt over leaving the nearly 4 month lockdown was quickly replaced by anger and disbelief at how complacent provinces were as they stared a second wave in the face (I exclude the Atlantic bubble here). With cases in BC climbing to the same level that precipitated Melbourne’s harshest restrictions, I found myself wishing to be under those rules again.

It’s not ridiculous to look at Australia for guidance on how to deal with this second wave. The state of Victoria and the province of BC have comparable populations of 6.6 million and 5.1 million respectively. Both Australia and Canada have similar systems of government in which the premiers have much of the control over how they handle the pandemic response. Just like we are seeing in Vancouver and surrounding cities, the majority of sustained community transmission was in the greater Melbourne metropolitan area. What is different is the path that was chosen when the pandemic started. Australia, like New Zealand, aimed for elimination, even eradication of COVID-19. Canada was content to merely suppress it at levels that would not overwhelm hospitals. That choice may have worked the first time but it’s certainly not now.

“New modelling from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) shows the number of COVID-19 cases could reach 60,000 a day by the end of December if Canadians increase their current level of contact with other people. That number could be limited to 20,000 a day if Canadians maintain their current number of personal contacts, according to PHAC. But to drive that number under 10,000 cases a day by the end of the year, Canadians would need to limit their interactions to essential activities while maintaining physical distancing and adhering to other public health guidelines.” CBC 20 November

The fact that we should just accept 20,000 cases a day with our current levels of restrictions is mind-boggling. Even 10,000 cases a day scares me. Much of what I take issue with in the following is BC specific but it goes for any province not doing enough to curb this second wave (cough, Alberta, cough).

When I returned I was shocked to discover that BC did not have a provincial mandatory mask mandate unlike many others. The official line was that the spread was mostly from social gatherings and masks wouldn’t be worn in those situations anyway. To this I yelled ‘then put more limits on gatherings” at the TV. On 19 November masks became mandatory in public indoor spaces. Even as she made the announcement, Dr. Bonnie Henry seemed to brush it off as something the government was only implementing to appease the growing public call for legislation; other than that, there was still no reason for it. Furthermore, the mask mandate does not apply to schools. Again the government maintained the position that there was not enough transmission in schools to warrant it. So now BC is in this ridiculous situation where a parent has to wear a mask in the grocery store for half an hour while their kid sits in a poorly ventilated building for 7 without one. With contradictory messaging like that it’s no wonder people don’t take it seriously. Wearing a mask is relatively low cost high reward but it must be enforced in all indoor public settings.

The other thing that seemed crazy to me was people eating in restaurants, going to the gym, and attending large weddings and funerals. Those events had not been allowed in Melbourne for months. A few weeks after I arrived the government talked a lot about sticking to your ‘safe six people bubble’. But it was never made clear that a bubble is only as strong as its weakest link and would never be completely COVID free. With people still going to restaurants, the gym, and cinemas, the chances of someone bringing COVID into your bubble only increased as cases numbers did. Now we’ve finally been told to socialize with our immediate households only, but we can still troop out to the bar or go to a gym (although high intensity activities like spin classes are no longer permitted).

What could help monitor these social interactions is the federal COVID Alert app. Yet the BC government has consistently declined to activate it stating that it will hinder current contract tracing efforts and confuse people who receive alerts that they may have been exposed. Adopting the app will never replace track and trace investigations by human beings but it can complement it. Dr. Henry has admitted that the rising case numbers are causing delays in contact tracking. If the alert can tell me I’ve been potentially exposed before a public health official can, I’ll take it. It’s the same principle with mask wearing - it will never completely prevent you from picking up COVID but it sure helps your chances.

I want my normal life back as much as anyone but that is simply not possible. Leaving one lockdown for another is not my idea of fun but 7 weeks of being back in Canada has demonstrated that this country is only putting off the inevitable. Even after 9 months of this pandemic, the federal and many provincial governments would rather use words like ‘encourage’ or ‘recommend’ rather than ‘mandatory’. They put out confusing or contradictory information and then scold people for not following it. The longer we wait to enforce stricter rules, the harder it will be to flatten the curve, let alone force it downwards. It’s only the end of November; we have another four to five months of cold weather keeping us indoors to get through. I shudder to think at what our case numbers will be in January after the holidays.

The news of three promising vaccines provides cause for celebration but we should not resist implementing further restrictions simply because some people *may* start receiving the jab next spring. It will take time before it gets to the general population - our medical professionals and the vulnerable rightly need it first. We will still have to wear masks, limit gatherings, and socially distance as those around us slowly start receiving the vaccine. Yes that means throughout 2021 for Canadians, especially if we cannot get a handle on cases this winter.

I can offer these thoughts only as someone who experienced an actual lockdown (make no mistake, Canada’s version is ‘lockdown-lite’). I won’t bother advocating for the harshest of Melbourne’s restrictions because the government isn’t willing or prepared to invest the manpower it will take to enforce such rules. But surely some watered down version could be implemented. At some point public health must take priority. You can’t have a thriving economy when your workforce is sick, isolating, or dead. As the Victorian government reminded me daily this year: ‘staying apart keeps us together’.

#lockdowndiaries #coronavirus #covidcanada #covidbc #bcpoli #acanadiannolongerdownunder #melbourne #covidzero #wearamask

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