Should schools and workplaces go back into lockdown?

The lockdown in Australia started on March 23 with cases at 1,887 and as you may have realised we have all started to go back to our normal lives but as the lockdown is easing off we have had a new wave of cases…

Due to these new cases there has been talk about going back into full lockdown… 

What are your thoughts? Is it worth risking another outbreak? Or should we go back into lockdown and prevent this from happening?

The economy has taken a big hit from this pandemic, as the ABC reported, the lockdown was costing our economy $4billion weekly and is estimated that our GDP could be reduced by $34.2 billion.

We currently have 2,448 active cases, do you think this is from restrictions being almost back to normal too quickly?

The restrictions being changed have meant that schools have started to go back to normal as your kids would have told you, you probably have also been told by them that there have been multiple cases in schools… This should’ve been considered as the average number of students in a school is around 500, and schools are one of the main places where germs spread as there are hundreds of students all using the same tools and equipment day in day out. At my school (St Mary’s Cathedral College) there are not many ways to stay safe from germs but the use of masks is allowed.

I personally felt very confused as I had gone into the Sydney CBD to do some shopping and realised that restrictions had almost gone back to normal as people were crowding around and socialising like we weren’t in the middle of a pandemic… the government should realise that majority of people are dying to go back to their normal lives and would be looking for any excuse to see their friends and family.

The lockdown should have been extended as there are people who aren’t going to not follow the rules properly, but at what cost… Should the government take the risk of the economy going into recession, should certain states be in different levels of restrictions based on their case numbers? These are all things we all need to consider before we make our mind up…

A second lockdown could happen eventually if people aren’t careful, restrictions should still be in place and more obvious, I personally am unaware of any of the restrictions as of right now… how are we told? 

Who tells us?

Why aren’t there billboards put up about steps people can follow to stay covid safe? Not everyone has a tv and watches the 10 second ads that come on every 20 minutes. It seems as if the government is more worried about the economy rather than the current situation of the virus… has your workplace been informed of ways to stay safe? Social distancing rules? Compulsory use of hand sanitiser? These things should all be mandatory.

Imagine if we went back to stage one, imagine it… this would be a shock to our nation, everyone had thought that it was at a safe level and from out of nowhere it bites us on the backside, this would be extremely frustrating for our government to restart the whole process once again and for me and you not knowing if we are still safe.

What do you think… should we risk a recession in our economy to stay safe? Or should we go on about our normal lives and risk a mass outbreak? 

It isn’t an easy question to answer and nobody should think it is but there are steps we can all take to make it a little bit better whichever way we decide to go as a nation.