for my dear friend Rita in Rosario :)
Argentina and Adelaide’s Lockdown – Another COVID Tale
What does Argentina have to do with Adelaide’s lockdown?
Well as it turns out, very little! Earlier in the year an 81 year old Adelaide resident,
originally from Argentina, went back to Argentina for a visit with his daughter.
This immediately begs the question - how did they get permission for this
journey? There are few details made public about why they were allowed to
travel to Argentina and back but the fact is hundreds of Australians have been
refused permission to leave or enter the country.
However, the man and his daughter began their two weeks hotel
quarantine in Sydney on their return. Towards the end of this quarantine period
the man apparently had a fall in his hotel room and had to be transferred to a
general hospital. He was COVID tested, found to be negative, and eventually discharged
and returned home to Adelaide.
Some days later he developed breathing problems and together
with is daughter presented with his symptoms at the emergency department of a
local hospital at 2.30 am. What kind of person walks into a hospital with
breathing problems in this day and age? What the hell were they thinking???? He
was COVID tested, found to be positive, and immediately 57 emergency ward staff
at the hospital are sent into quarantine and the emergency department shut down!
When this story was reported in the media we all started thinking
it was another case of someone bringing COVID into Australia from overseas.
BUT, it turns out the 81 year old gentleman caught the virus in the hospital in
Sydney!! Because he and his daughter had been cleared of COVID in Sydney they
just went about their normal life when they got back to Adelaide. Now he and
his daughter and 10 other people in the community are infected, and thousands of
primary contacts – from restaurants, schools, offices, shops - are in home isolation.
And the entire state of South Australia is now in a 7 day stay-at-home lockdown.
So if the old man hadn’t fallen over in his hotel room this
wouldn’t have happened. But he can’t be blamed. The virus was already raging in
Sydney. It did come from overseas – an overseas aircrew passed it on to the driver
of a minibus some weeks earlier and it quickly spread because the NSW state government were
reluctant to enter lockdown. In the end they had no choice, but they were too
late. By then the virus had spread through most Australian states and consequently
I sit here in lockdown again.
COVID TALE II
A friend of mine has
been playing with some musicians for a few years and gradually developing a collection
of songs they might eventually play at gigs. Recently a new member joined the
band. When my friend went to this new person’s house for band practice the band
were talking about COVID vaccinations and a couple of them were saying they
would not be getting the vaccine. When my friend told the others he was already
vaccinated he was told he was not welcome at the house because he would now be
passing the virus on to other people in the band!! My friend has since left the
band and is really disappointed. Three years of building up a repertoire and musical
relationships down the drain because of dumbf***ery.
COVID-19: the gift that keeps on giving.
