Perth Lockdown Diaries – Day 3

Wednesday, 3rd February, 2021

Hello again my friends, and welcome to the Perth lockdown diaries for Wednesday. You can catch up on days 1 and 2 here. Read along as we navigate the snap lockdown in Perth.

Groundhog Day

For those of you that have been in lockdown for a long time, what does it feel like? Seriously, what are you doing to stay sane? Please share your tips and advice. We are in day 3 and already it is starting to feel like groundhog day. I can only imagine what you must be feeling after an extended period.

In today’s press conference, we got more good news from the Premier. Big Dog McGowan told us that there had been in excess of 12,000 COVID tests, which resulted in another day of zero local transmission. Another doughnut day. The sceptical amongst you may be wondering how this is even possible. 

Patient 903

Patient 903, which is what the government is now affectionately calling the hotel security guard that triggered the lockdown, was in close contact with quite a lot of people. From the contact tracing we can see that he had also visited many locations. He seems to be partial to KFC. And he has the UK variant which we are told is much more highly transmissible than other variants. Yet, all the close and casual contacts are currently returning negative COVID test results. It is a mystery. But a happy one for the people of Perth.

The new normal, again

Whilst we keep getting “doughnut days”, the Premier says that we will come out of lockdown as planned at 6pm on Friday. Interestingly, the narrative is subtly changing with talk now of not returning to the normality we had, prior to last Sunday, but to a normal that includes new COVID restrictions. We wait with anticipation to hear what these restrictions are.

The bushfires continue to rage across parts of Perth and thankfully there has been no loss of life. This is in large part thanks to the extraordinary job the emergency services are doing. The firies continue to work relentlessly, with assistance from the east coast who have flown over additional aerial tankers for dousing the flames. Sadly, the number of properties lost to the fires has jumped up to 81. We pray for good weather conditions overnight and that the situation starts to improve.

In more positive news, the wine remains in the bottle and my willpower continues to hold out. Two more days of lockdown. We can, and will, do this.