At the end of the first full week of the return to stage 3 restrictions in Victoria, we have been given the news that from 11:59 pm Wednesday 22/7/20 the rules will again change, this time to mandate the wearing of masks in public. The fine will be $200 and children under 12 years of age are exempt from this rule.

This mandate requiring masks to be worn comes off the back of a significant week of record high numbers of cases being announced. This week was always going to be bad as it falls within the time lag from acquisition to symptomatic prior to the lock down being re-introduced.

The daily number of cases announced through the week from Monday 13th July through to today Sunday 19th July were; 168, 257, 224, 302, 415, 188, 343. Breaking the 300 barrier and then the 400 barrier were a shock to many Melbournians such that the once shocking amount of 200 cases had become a relief.

Hopefully the coming days will see the new case numbers decrease as a result of returning to stage 3 restrictions.

NSW has been closely watching outbreaks related to the Crossroads Hotel in Casula, South West of Sydney. The numbers are still low in NSW, just in the teens, however the potential for those numbers to take off like they have in Melbourne is still there.

The weather hasn’t been massively kind in providing great photos. I have managed only a few shots this week. I had managed to get some photos of the local cygnets which I am posting on my Facebook page.