Last Friday we came out of lockdown in Canberra. We went into lockdown about two months ago after a Delta case appeared in the city. Over the weeks the cases spread across the city, but fortunately things never got out of hand. In a city of 430,000 people we've had a total of 1700 cases in those two months, with never more than 50 new cases in a day.
The main factor which allowed the lockdown to end was that here in Canberra we reached 80% double-dose vaccines in those aged 16 and above. We're now at 86% double-dose and >98% single-dose, and both figures are still increasing.
On top of that, vaccines were made available for 12- to 15-year-olds a couple of months ago. Our 13YOS got his second dose last Friday (with no side effects beyond soreness at the injection site). We're now waiting for vaccine approval for 5- to 11-year-olds.
In the meantime, the kids all go back to school on 1 November. We've just received information on the procedures the schools will have in place to reduce contacts among the school kids - a range of simple and low-key things which look eminently sensible to me: the library will be closed, lunch breaks will be staggered, access to the school oval will be on a year group roster for lunch and recess, each year group will have specific toilets allocated to them, bubblers will be switched off, and kids will be encouraged to wear masks (but it isn't compulsory).
The one compulsory thing is that teachers must be vaccinated in order to be allowed to teach classes. Not surprisingly this has caused some angst, but quite a few government departments and large private employers across Australia have announced vaccine mandates in the last couple of weeks. Yes, I understand the personal right-to-choose argument used by opponents of vaccine mandates. I just wish the people using those arguments understood their decision affects the community and not just them.
