Items

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  2020-09-11

  How cautious is too cautious?

  In my household at least, temperature checks have become part of our regular routine, especially since two of us have been 'permitted workers' throughout the year and therefore still come into regular contact with the public. At this point Victoria was in it's second wave of the pandemic, we'd just been through winter and were into hay fever season: all of this made it very hard to tell when to get a test. In this case I had taken my temperature a couple of hours before work and had to decide if this borderline temperature was enough make me call in sick on such short notice. The government had announced a payment system for people who feared missing work to get tested due to the financial impact, but for me the problem has been managing managers expectations and creating difficulties for my workplace. I did get a test from a pop-up site at a local pool and I got a text message with the negative results in less than 24 hours.
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  2020-04-16

  Humans of Covid-19 AU: Jemma Katz

  “In November, I was diagnosed with a cancer of the immune system. I've been undergoing chemo ever since. I finished three weeks ago, but the chemo is really intense and makes you very vulnerable to catching everything, so I can’t leave the house at all. My sister caught a tiny cold and it gave me a really intense chest infection. I have nothing in my body to fight off infection. My life was meant to go back to normal after chemo, but it hasn’t. Very much the opposite. The whole experience of cancer and then corona all around has made me realise how much I took for granted in my life, like being independent. I pretty much can’t do anything alone. I'm 23, and not really living the life of a 23 year old. I've found it helpful to establish a routine. I’m looking forward to being able to do the simple things once this is over, like going for a drive or a walk alone, being able to look after myself.” Instagram post on Jemma, a university student, and her experience during the pandemic, which was created by a psychology student living in Melbourne who was interested to hear about how COVID-19 was impacting on different peoples’ lives.
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  2020-04-21

  Ballarat 3 21 April 2020 Being Sick In This Time - But Not With The Virus

  An account of how lockdown has affected delivery of some medical services
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  2020-03-25

  Our family home schooling schedule.

  My son's school closed on Monday. He is a high energy kid and copes better when he knows what the day holds. So I devised a schedule for us where he can continue to learn whilst school is closed. We are finding that having a schedule is really helping with our daily life. It is meant to be flexible and serves more of a touchstone for when things get difficult throughout the day. Many people are saying that time in isolation is a great opportunity to learn an instrument or language, master a hobby or really relax - but those of us with children don't have that luxury.