Welcome all to 2021.
A little reflection on how we are travelling through this COVID Pandemic.
Starting in March of last year we were in totally unknown circumstances with the Pandemic. There were opinions and speculation about what the community should and should not do. As usual negative rumors took hold and some people chose to ignore recommendations. Meanwhile, meetings could not be held face to face and we went online with video conferencing, eventually making an adjective out of the service we were using, Zoom, and went fully into “Zoom meetings”.
Eventually the “hard lockdowns” that we in Australia had in late March 2020 started to work and we all relaxed when a second wave hit. By September this was under some control compared to many other countries where the governments seemed to be in denial. Now we are opening state borders again and the number of total cases across Australia is down into the teens with many states identifying none. Most cases are found in incoming travellers from overseas and go into hotel quarantine.
Now plans for one of the several vaccines to be distributed throughout Australia are being put into place and should be available for most of us starting February – a priority order is being prepared and tenders are being issued for GPs to become vaccination centres. When we know more, we will inform you all as the government plans are put into place.
The NSW government is lifting the mandatory mask edict on the 1st February and borders between NSW and Queensland are opening, so things are looking brighter. The pandemic is not over – it will be with us in some form, like many other viruses such as colds and flu, for a time to come and we will have defences against it.
At our Australia Day BBQ, we had the best cooperation between the seven Rotary Clubs serving the Blue Mountains and the Blue Mountains City Council that I can remember.
A great start to the year.