If you’re totally bummed out about being cooped up at home and you’ve done everything that’s possibly entertaining for you at home, then there’s another motivational aspect that you can think of. These are the penalties for disobeying the lockdown rules – under the NSW Public Health Act, individuals face fines of up to $11,000 or can be sent to prison for six months – or both. If the offence continues, there would be another $5,500 penalty for each day.
Due to the increase in the number of cases acquired through community transmission, NSW Premiere Gladys Berejiklian said on her interview with news.com.au,”Do not leave your home unless you absolutely have to. It is really important for us, at this stage of the virus, for us to maintain that level of control and containment as much as possible. We want to see fewer people have to go to hospital. We want to see fewer people die.”
image c/o The Guardian
So what are the reasons that qualifies as “situations that we absolutely have to”? Here’s a list culled from the
NSW Gazette (Number 65, released March 30, 2020), simplified for better understanding:
‘REASONABLE EXCUSES’ TO BE OUTSIDE IN NSW
- Obtaining food or other goods or services for the personal needs of the household or other household purposes (including for pets) and for vulnerable persons
- Travelling for the purposes of work if the person cannot work from the person's place of residence
- Travelling for the purposes of attending childcare (including picking up or dropping another person at childcare)
- Travelling for the purposes of facilitating attendance at a school or other educational institution if the person attending the school or institution cannot learn from the person's place of residence
- Exercising
- Only with another person from your household, no group exercises with people from the community
- Obtaining medical care or supplies or health supplies or fulfilling carer's responsibilities
- Attending a wedding or a funeral
- for a wedding, there should only be 5 people including the celebrant
- for funerals, there should only be 10 people attending including the minister
- social distancing (1.5m) should still be observed
- Moving to a new place of residence (including a business moving to new premises) or between different places of residence of the person or inspecting a potential new place of residence
- Providing care or assistance (including personal care) to a vulnerable person or providing emergency assistance
- Donating blood
- Undertaking any legal obligations
- Accessing public services (whether provided by Government, a private provider or a non-Government organisation), including social services, employment services, domestic violence services, mental health services, and services provided to victims (including as victims of crime)
- For children who do not live in the same household as their parents or siblings or one of their parents or siblings — continuing existing arrangements for access to, and contact between, parents and children or siblings
- For a person who is a priest, minister of religion or member of a religious order going to the person's place of worship or providing pastoral care to another person
- Avoiding injury or illness or to escape a risk of harm
- For emergencies or compassionate reasons.
Remember that the operative word is “reasonable.” Currently, contact is the biggest contributory factor in spreading the virus which can provide different levels of uncomfortable effects to whomever catches it or spreads it. Since this is the identified mode of transmission, there are two easy steps that we could do, stay at home and educate yourself about the virus.