I have mixed feelings about how Covid is being managed in both New Zealand and Australia. Firstly we were allowed to travel to Australia without needing to quarantine and for that I am grateful. The ‘one way’ travel bubble worked in our favour and I had been hoping that by the time I return in mid-March the full bubble would be operating. Now I’m not so sure, and its highly likely that I will be in 14 day MIQ.
The NSW Health have an App similar to the NZ Covid Tracing App but it is not as easy to use as ours. The NSW version is ‘hidden’ within a multi-purpose App that has other non-covid functions and does not have Bluetooth.
Now we have a community case in Northland. I believe that this woman was able to interact with new arrivals quite close to the time she was ready to be released with her second negative test and if this is the case then we have serious problems in how we manage our MIQ! This community case has caused flights to be cancelled for 72 hours, tears at the airport for people who thought they were able to travel and for those that were literally in the air are now in Australian MIQ. There are businesses in Northland that need to shut because of this as well. People’s lives, businesses and freedoms all affected by poor management at MIQ.
The NSW Health App works (especially because both Lucy and I had loaded our Australian numbers onto there). On Monday we both had an email and a phone call from NSW Health confirming our details, asking about our movements and our health. That was impressive. Later that day I see on the NZ Herald site that we need to isolate and get tested because we travelled from New Zealand to Australia during a particular window of time. We safely assumed that we would receive a call from NSW Health if that was the case. They called. It was late Tuesday and it was Australia Day holiday so we were told that we had to isolate and get tested in the morning. We need to stay in isolation until we get a negative result.
I look on line to see where the nearest testing stations are and all of the sites that are within a 4km walking distance are for drive thru testing. You must remain in your car it says? We don’t have a car! They only sites that allowed you to walk in (and not need an appointment) were either a bus or train ride away…how risky is that! We left the apartment at 7am and took the 20min train ride to Hornsby Hospital which opened at 8am.
After being poked and prodded in the mouth and both nostrils we were both done quite quickly (we were first in line). After returning by train to the apartment in Gordon we now wait for the results. Our tests are to be given priority because of our connection to Northland but may still take a couple of days. Good thing we stocked up the fridge just in case…
My Fear Share 