It has been a few weeks since my last update related to Coronavirus. Well, the last month or so has not seen many changes. The most significant change was just announced in the past week, and it is a promising change for Australia. This change is coming due to a lower number of confirmed daily cases.

Australia is doing much better in the fight against Coronavirus than most countries. As of the date of this writing, there have been about 6,750 confirmed cases in Australia. The active cases are currently under 1,000. In late March, the cases were increasing by 100s per day. In the last ten days, Australia has seen an average of less than 20 new cases per day.

The decrease in new cases is prompting some states in Australia to look into reducing some of the restrictions. Here in Queensland, the government has announced the following reductions:

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced that people would be able to go for a drive within 50 kilometres of their home or go out for a picnic with members of their household.

Some non-essential shopping, like for clothes or shoes, would be permitted and some national parks would reopen.

abc.net.au

If things quickly turn worse, then the government will remove these reductions. On the other hand, if everything continues to improve, then more reductions could be seen in the next couple of weeks. Police will still be out, making sure people are only with others from their household. They will also make sure people are following social distancing. Anyone found breaking the social distancing rules will still face hefty fines that backpackers cannot afford to pay.

The changes are small, but they might be a sign of good things to come. These changes will not provide much impact for backpackers. The biggest improvement for backpackers is the ability to relax outside. This will be huge for the ones that have been primarily confined to small dorm rooms at hostels.

Hopefully, these good signs keep improving here in Australia. Hopefully, other countries will be able to follow this trend as well in the coming months. For now, stay safe, wash your hands, and maintain social distancing so that we can get through this.