Brisbane vs NYC COVID Lockdowns: 5 Key Differences

The Delta strain of COVID has arrived in Australia, spiraling nearly half the population into lockdown as case counts rose to 319 as of July 1st (click HERE for the data and see the screenshot below.) The Delta strain could be the demise of Australia’s stellar COVID track record given it’s highly infectious nature and the fact that only 5.8% of the population is fully vaccinated due to a poor vaccine rollout (stay tuned for the next post on how I managed to snag my first dose!)

On June 30^th  6:00pm,  Brisbane, along with other parts of Queensland, entered a 3  day lockdown after an unvaccinated hospital worker who traveled around the state tested positive for the Delta variant. Jeremy and I have been outrageously lucky in avoiding COVID lockdowns in Australia, and I suppose it was due time we had one.

While this is my first Aussie lockdown, I’m no stranger to stay at home orders. I was living in NYC from February to August 2020, which was quite the journey to say the least. (Click HERE to learn about my job on the front line!) How would the Brisbane lockdown differ? Well, I’m here to tell you!

1.Fines

In Brisbane (and throughout Australia), if you break stay at home orders or are caught not wearing a mask, you will get fined. The hot news story at the moment is that two men were caught 25 miles outside of Sydney sun bathing in the nude, earning them each a A$1,000 fine. No one is off limits, and even the Deputy Prime Minister Baraby Joyce got fined A$200 in New South Wales for not wearing a mask in a petrol station.

In New York City, you had to do something pretty big, IE throw an underground rave, to get in trouble. Usually, the worst case scenario for breaking mask mandates and stay at home orders was simply being asked to put one on or go home. When stay at home orders lifted but mask mandates remained, one of my odd jobs was asking everyone at Chelsea Market to wear a mask. If they refused, the only consequence was perhaps being refused service from the open vendors.

Forget taxes! The US could have raised an outrageous amount of money if COVID fines were put in place!

2. State Border Restrictions

Although I was in NYC, which was a COVID hotspot, I could have probably traveled to any state of my liking at any time of my choosing without getting in trouble. While the government had a 14 day quarantine rule in place, it was purely based on the honor system. Individuals who didn’t adhere to the quarantine rules and subsequently spread COVID got a good dose of public shaming, but as a whole, interstate travel was open.

Now that I’m in Brisbane, if I’m caught too far from home without reason, I’ll be fined. If I want to enter another state, I will likely need to get special entry permission. State border closures have been a common tool for controlling COVID in Australia. Mind you, it’s much easier to close the borders of 6 states compared to 50. Borders have been so tight that I had to double quarantine when I first got to Australia; two weeks in a Sydney hotel followed by two weeks of self quarantine in Tasmania. And yes, police came by to check to see if I was home. Click HERE for my 28 day saga.

3. Monitoring and Enforcement

Yesterday, I was out for my daily exercise (which is allowed), and there were police officers telling people to go home who were clearly just sitting around. Failure to comply would have earned those people a fine.

In New York, police officers would stroll past families having BBQs at Riverside Park without saying a word.

4. Contact Tracing

In Brisbane, I have to scan a QR code and check in via the Check In QLD app before entering a building. In NYC and the US as a whole, contract tracing was an utter failure. Not only did people see it as an attack on privacy, but by the time contract tracing efforts began, the virus has already spiraled out of control. Check out THIS post I wrote about COVID protocol in Tasmania for a more in depth look at contact tracing.

5. People Follow the Rules

In Brisbane, people actually seem to follow the rules. Fines and enforcement are certainly part of the reason, but as a whole, people seem diligent about wearing masks and following protocol. I’ve noticed that Australias seem to be better about following laws and rules in general. Perhaps I’ll elaborate in a future post!

In NYC, (well, more so the US as a whole), mask wearing and lockdowns became highly politicized from the get-go. Many people saw the restrictions as infringements on freedom rather than life saving precautions. Click HERE for my two cents on the mask debate.

Final Thoughts

COVID lockdowns are incredibly different in Brisbane than they were in NYC. There are strict rules and harsh fines for non-compliance, and border and travel restrictions are taken seriously. The rules are tough, but they have been effective. Australia’s death toll is currently at 910 people, and *most of the country has been able to enjoy a relative sense of normalcy throughout the majority of the pandemic.

*Melbourne experienced particularly brutal lockdowns, the longest clocking in at 111 days.

But will the lockdowns work for fighting of the Delta variant? Let’s hope the answer is yes….