TESTIMONY
They must again stay at home and limit their outings to the bare minimum: the five million inhabitants of Melbourne, the second largest city in Australia, are forced to reconfigure themselves in the face of the rapid progression of the coronavirus in this country. Europe 1 has collected the testimony of Alex, French expatriate in Australia for ten years, who describes a "panic" among the inhabitants and an absence of "mark on a return to normal".
Shift facing the rest of the country
When the reconfiguration was announced on Tuesday, "many people tried to flee Melbourne as quickly as possible," said Alex. "People have tried to go either to the countryside or to another state which was less confined", especially in the west of the country. The announcement was made when this city in south-eastern Australia reported 191 new cases in 24 hours, making it difficult to trace contacts of people infected with the virus.
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Several million inhabitants therefore found themselves "isolated from the rest of the country" almost overnight, he explains. "When I go to Facebook and I see people who are starting to come out, it affects me even more. We end up being able to do nothing while the others really enjoy their freedom."
"For us, it's not over"
Beyond the comparison with other cities and states of the country, it is the feeling of returning to a situation of frustration that predominates in Alex. "We know how the containment works. We know what to expect, how monotonous it is and how you end up going around in circles," he describes.
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For the time being, there is no end date for this new confinement, felt differently from the first: "For the first confinement, we said good, it's not great, but at least, we can find a little freedom afterwards. But there, we have no benchmark for the return to normal. Everyone experiences this more difficult than the first time. It really shows us how much for us, it's not over. That's what demoralizes people a little. "