What’s the difference? Leigh Sales asks question on the lips of most Victorians

Leigh Sales overnight lit up social media with a question on the lips of all Victorians – why are they locked down when other states aren’t?

There might be nothing more agonising for a Victorian in lockdown than watching interstate friends and colleagues enjoying freedoms they can only dream about.

Some have even suggested it might be time to shut down social media as scenes from beyond the border – at restaurants and bars and beaches – remind them of what they cannot have, yet.

Anyone else in Melbourne considering deleting all their social media apps because the sight of the rest of the country happily enjoying a normal life while we're in this never-ending lockdown is just too soul-crushingly painful? It's FOMO on a nuclear level.

— Jill Stark (@jillastark) October 11, 2020

Melburnians remain under strict lockdown despite average daily coronavirus cases dropping below 10 over the last 14 days.

The success that saw Victorians drive cases down from more than 700 a day less than two months ago has given rise to some optimism. But Premier Daniel Andrews is tight-lipped about which restrictions will ease on October 19.

He said the numbers are not yet low enough to satisfy the easing of all restrictions.

The waiting for lockdown to end is torture for Victorians who struggle to understand why NSW reopened with similar case numbers earlier this year – and stayed open.

ABC 7.30 host Leigh Sales sparked a robust discussion on social media on Sunday night when she posed that question.

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“There’s something I don’t understand,” Sales began.

“Looking at NSW stats around mid-July, there were 15/18/14/20 new corona cases a day. It never escalated. No lockdown and life was COVID-normal. Why isn’t that happening now in Vic on their current numbers?”

She went on to ask whether the difference in the handling of the virus was “mystery cases”.

“I just don’t get why NSW functioned at those numbers almost normally but things are so drastically different in Victoria.”

There’s something I don’t understand - looking at NSW stats around mid Jul, there were 15/18/14/20 new corona cases a day. It never escalated. No lockdown & life was covid-normal. Why isn’t that happening now in Vic on their current numbers? @normanswan @CaseyBriggs

— Leigh Sales (@leighsales) October 11, 2020

Host of the ABC’s Coronacast podcast Norman Swan told Sales there are a “combination of factors” that make the situations different.

“Much better on the ground contact tracing ie faster and more efficient,” he said of NSW.

“NSW never had thousands of mystery cases like Victoria did and never had out of control superspreading events. So, more control, less virus circulating.”

Melbourne doctor Vyom Sharma, who has been outspoken about Victorian improving its contact tracing capabilities, wrote that “comparing NSW to Vic now is a bit tricky”.

“Both states are achieving similar case numbers, but Vic is worse than it looks right now, barely achieving the same result with lockdowns,” he wrote.

“No doubt Vic contact tracing was inadequate, likely due to a highly centralised structure of DHHS vs localised health model in NSW. Lack of local knowledge and inefficiency come with this.

Leigh Sales posed the question about different approaches in Victoria and NSW.

“Not to mention, Victoria’s public health team has been historically underfunded and has smaller staff size compared to other states.

“So our cluster management wasn’t great. I say ‘wasn’t great’, and not ‘a total sh*tshow’ because the error of margin is smaller than people think. We look at 700/day cases and go ‘How’d they let it get that far!’”

Victorian on Monday recorded 15 new cases and no new deaths. It brings the 14-day average to 9.9 cases in metropolitan Melbourne.

The Premier told reporters on Sunday there will be an easing of some restrictions but, “I don’t think we’re able to get as far and as fast as we hoped”.

“I don’t want to do a big laundry list … but everything is on the table,” he said.

“A whole lot of outdoor activity is on the table and we will also spend quite a bit of time thinking about what’s a safe group size for people outside to be able to join each other to be part of the things we crave the most. That’s the connections that we’ve been deprived of.”