Coronavirus: Melbourne lockdown veterans unmask panicking of ‘others’

Down the road from COVID-19 cluster hub Al-Taqwa College, Wyndham Vale Village is packed with cars but people inside Coles and Aldi are keeping their distances.

Police on a Flemington housing estate detain a woman before later releasing her. Picture: Tim Carrafa

Down the road from COVID-19 cluster hub Al-Taqwa College, Wyndham Vale Village is packed with cars but people inside Coles and Aldi are keeping their distances, with many wearing masks and even gloves, and all aware of the looming lockdown.

One woman walked out of the centre without a mask but pushing a trolley with eight packs of toilet paper in preparation for the fresh restrictions while a young man walking past said “people are nuts”.

Shopper Shahnaz Hamid said that since the resurgence of the virus, panic buying had returned with Coles running short on fruit and vegetables.

“We haven’t really stocked up. I still go to the shops so long as I can keep my distance and hygiene,” she said. “I can only speak for myself but I’m a pretty responsible person.”

North Melbourne towers receive a food delivery. Picture: David Crosling

Ms Hamid, from Truganina, works as a nurse in the emergency department of Northern Hospital and nine of her colleagues have tested positive for coronavirus over the past six days.

“It will always be around,” she said.

“(Recovery) depends on people – whether they are more compliant.”

Ms Hamid’s 12-year-old stepdaughter, Isabel, had only been able to see her friends at school and over the winter holidays for a few weeks but said she was okay with another lockdown and possibly weeks of online learning.

“We usually just chat online and call each other,” she said.

 

Joe Luppino is a tradie and the previous lockdown has led him to expect a business drop of 70 per cent as customers worry about him potentially carrying the virus into their homes.

“We’ve just been shopping, it’s the same (thing),” he said.

Mr Luppino said he expected coronavirus and its effects to last at least to the end of the year and blames the state government in part for letting the Black Lives Matter protest to go ahead and mismanagement of the lifting of restrictions.

Queuing at Woolworths in Moonee Ponds. Picture: Ian Currie

His shopping trolley is full but Mr Luppino said it is his usual fortnightly shop, although he was slightly worried about shopping for his family of five over the coming weeks as others panicked about shortages.

Samira Osman has been wearing a face mask when leaving home since February with a brief break in May and June.

While her 12-year-old daughter, Lina, had a disposable mask in her hands outside the centre, Ms Osman still wore her reusable mask and disposable gloves.

“I think it’s protecting [me], that’s why I wear it,” she said.

Shahnaz Hamid and stepdaughter Isabel. Picture: Eugene Hyland

She said the earlier lockdown had been lifted too early and a new and longer lockdown was the only was to combat the virus.

“We have to because it’s going to go up if we don’t lock down,” Ms Osman said.

She said people would return to panic buying and this time she would be stocking up with items such as hand sanitiser and antibacterial wipes, which were hard to find last time.