Circuit Breaker Lockdowns & Hotel Quarantines.

This rant isn't radio related.

In VK3, we've found ourselves now in the middle of a 5 day "circuit breaker" lockdown, effectively locking down the entire state. Most other states have also closed their borders to us. 

Yet again, what amount to effective failures in the "Hotel Quarantine" system have resulted in the UK strain of COVID19 escaping out into the community. 

We keep allowing people back into the country, and it keeps escaping. 

There are two simple choices here:

- Close the bloody borders and let no one - including all of those expats who decided 12 months ago that they weren't coming back who now want to come back - in. Consider for compassionate grounds only, and put them through quarantine if possible. 

- Change the quarantine system. 

Why on earth are we continuing to put potentially infected people into multistory buildings, devoid of fresh air and space, in the middle of cities where the staff working those facilities then go home to their families and otherwise go about their daily lives? 

We've seen now that this strain spreads with ease and its behaviour is different. People who've been negative for 2 weeks in quarantine have left then later returned positive results. 

That should be enough to bring into question the efficacy of cramming people into these buildings for 2 weeks then letting them out into the world. 

Perhaps it is time that we take more drastic measures:

Move the quarantine to military run tent cities in more remote areas. 

They certainly have the gear to facilitate such an endevour. A guarded facility where the military staff running it are considered "deployed" - that is, there is no going home during their stint. They stay at the facility. If they get infected, they move to another part of the facility. At the end of their stint, they spend 3 weeks in a different facility where once everyone in that facility is clear for 3 weeks, they may go home. 

The facilities can follow the seasons. In the warmer months the facilities can be moved to cooler locations. In the cooler months, move them north. 

People will need to live in tents. Families can live in a tent together. Once they pass 3 weeks of negative results, they can move to another facility where they spend a week before being allowed home. 

Yes, it'd suck. They wouldn't have the luxury of daily showers. The toilet options would stink. It would likely be either too hot or too cold. Communications would be limited and entertainment would be watching the grass grow. 

But, they could all be spaced apart with fresh air between them. Not recycled, recirculated air. A better process could be facilitated for delivery of food and supplies to each tent. You could even reasonably allocate common areas where people could be allowed - one tent at a time to come out and get fresh air and move around, then return before the next lot. Fresh air. 

This would not be the preferred choice for anyone having to go into it; but then it's not supposed to be 2 weeks in a luxurious hotel all because you've decided you're far more important than the rest of the planet in the middle of a pandemic. It's the price for crossing our border in the middle of a pandemic. 

Sounds like a tough life. Our military are used to it. Maybe those who want to come back into the country need to start making a sacrifice so millions of others can stop having to.