Where does time go? Dave and I took two days away and stayed overnight in Milag, which we used to do regularly as "mini getaways," when we desperately needed a break from the 24/7 work of caring for Mom. By by 2016, she was so frail (and hospitalized so often) that we couldn't risk being away from the house for longer than a few hours at a time (when Mike would sit with her, to give us a small break). My mind is struggling to cope with the truth --
It's been five years since we stayed overnight at the Milang Lakes Motel ... photographed the sunset at Clayton Bay, and the dawn on Lake Alexandrina. Five years! To say that it doesn't seem possible is a dreadful understatement. But it's true.
This was also my first opportunity to take the Lumix out on a trip ... and I'm glad we did this trip, because it looks like being the last one for some time. Meaning, months or years. It's all about COVID-19, and how South Australia has gone from being the safest place in the world a few weeks ago, to being dodgy. Very dodgy. It's possible that the state government never expected up to 15,000 people to make a headlong dash for the border in the few days before SA sealed it. Perhaps they expected only five or ten percent as many? Whatever. The fact is, if overseas arrivals are capped at 50 per week, to facilitate tracking and tracing, then this tells us clearly how many cases can be properly handled. So ...
Here we are with something in the order of 13k - 15k newcomers from Victoria and NSW, who flooded west. Put it this way: the population of SA just increased by a very big wedge, the size of several suburbs. And just this morning Victoria is announcing a daily record spike in cases. 723 new cases yesterday ... and the next person you see on the street in SA could easily have been in the city of Melbourne last week??
Let that sink in. Uh huh.
Sooo ... as of this moment, smart South Aussies are expecting to see a rush of new cases, as the flood tide over the border inevitably carries the virus with it. In Victoria a week ago, random testing showed 20% of people testing positive. And up to 15k of these random souls have just just been invited into SA. Meaning, in the next 7 - 21 days, we can expect up to one in five of them to test positive?
Even if only half that many, 10%, were infected when they drove west, it adds up to a major cinema full of potential cases in South Australia, plus the inevitable explosion as it gets into the community. Add to this the statement by SAPOL that only 90% of incoming travelers from Victoria are honoring the self-isolation system -- the other ten percent don't care, or can't be bothered, or believe the virus is a hoax; and some only came to SA so they could go to the pub! We won't even talk about the "Border Bandits," those criminals "running the border," racing into SA and heading for -- yep, the nearest pub. It only took two young women to carry the virus back into Queensland and create mayhem. Say just 75 people who are newly arrived become contagious next week, and don't bother to isolate. Each one of them goes to the pub and infects five or ten more...
Fact: our hospital system can't cope with that. Nobody's can. Bottom line? We can be as badly off as Victoria ... or Florida, or England ... by mid-August.
So, what's the plan?
You don't go planning any trips. You self isolate at home. Dave is the only one of us who goes out, to shops, pharmacy ... and work. He wears the mask to shop, we trust his workplace to be safe, since he works in aged care and they are very, very careful...
Result? Just as our March trip to the Limestone Coast was cancelled, we have to look at the greater probability that our September Clare Valley trip will be cancelled. I have the strongest suspicion that SA will be locked down tight through late August and all of September. We'll be lucky to get out on day trips!
So we made the most of the two days in Milang, enjoyed the heck out of it, and are cherishing the memories. Last time SA locked down, you couldn't even drive into Belair NP! The rules were, you stayed in your own postcode. We did it. SA was COVID-free, and then ... this.
It would be fair to say that someone has dropped the ball ... from a great height. The blame is going to rest on Steven Marshall's shoulders. As State Premier, it was ultimately his decision to make, and he made it. But the rest of us will pay the price, with weeks of lockdown, sickness, unemployment, and a death toll that will hurt.
I'm hoping to be probed wrong. If I knew how to pray, and believed in anything to pray to, yes, I'd be praying right now ... not that it would do any good. Why should prayer work in SA, when it failed in Victoria, and NSW is currently erupting with new cases, and the lines for testing in Queensland go out the door, down the street and around the block? So -- I can hope to be proved wrong in what I;ve said here, but if had a thousand bucks to wager, I'd bet I'm not.
Back into isolation, then, for the duration ...
And it could be a bloody long lockdown. Not happy. In fact ... angry. Very, very angry, but what can you do? What's done is done, and it's too late now. All we can do at this point is wait and see how this plays out. If I'm wrong, I'll either edit this, or blog again, or both. Fingers, toes and eyes crossed. Sigh.
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