2nd wave COVID-19 caused VIC State of Disaster & Stage 4 lockdown一波未平一波又起，新冠肺炎七月爆發單日數百宗，近日確診人數終於降至50

How is everyone been during lockdown throughout the past few months? Time has been going fast since the 2nd wave of COVID-19, when we were just entering winter. Now we are already in spring.

Remembering how back in June, everyone was getting ready to reopen their businesses and students were excited to return to school. Unfortunately the 2nd wave of the COVID-19 outbreak was a lot more serious and the number was remaining steadily high with several hundreds of people infected daily.

To fight the outbreak and reduce the pressure on our health system, the Victorian government decided to continue remote learning for schools and for businesses to remain in Stage 3 restrictions. By 22 July, it was announced that everyone from Metropolitan Melbourne would need to wear a face-covering when going outside.

By early August, we had moved from Stage of Emergency to Stage of Disaster which was also the start of Stage 4 restrictions, which included the first ever Melbourne-wide curfew in history, along with additional restrictions such as a 5km from home limit for shopping or exercise. Exercise had also been restricted to one hour with at most, one other person.

Last week on the 6 September, Premier Daniel Andrews announced the roadmap for all Victorians to understand the steps of returning to ‘normal’ life. We have now been notified that current Stage 4 restrictions will extend for another two weeks from tomorrow, the 14 until 27 September, including the curfew, but the starting time of that will be shifted from 8pm to 9pm until next morning 5am.

Although KITA was disappointed with the fact that we are unable to start our business until later this year, we understand the importance of people’s health and safety and therefore we would like to encourage everyone to cooperate with the Government: stay home if you can, wear a mask when going out and if you have any symptoms, get tested to prevent any further spread of the virus.

Victoria’s COVID-19 positive cases have been under 50 in the past 72 hours. If we can keep the numbers down or drop them down even lower, we will be able to move quicker and start out road of recovery. So let’s keep up the good work Victorians! For more details about the COVID19 restrictions roadmaps, please check: https://www.vic.gov.au/coronavirus-covid-19-restrictions-roadmaps

It seems that in the short period of time, KITA won’t be able to bring any live performances to the public or schools just yet. We may consider developing some online programs, hoping it will be a new way of bringing the Cultural education to schools or the community in the future. Even though the hope of getting new bookings continues postponing, we will continue to share interesting posts and updates from our Facebook Fan Page, so please support and follow up on: https://www.facebook.com/SabrinaDanceTroupe/

這幾個月來大家都還好嗎？一轉眼封城的日子已經由冬天走入春天了。

原本6月27日起，各產業計畫著陸續恢復營業，學生們結束兩個月遠距教學準備重回校園懷抱恢復面對面上課時，六月底放假期間新冠肺炎COVID19社區感染一發不可收拾，第二波疫情爆發，並且更加嚴重。7月初維州州長宣布學校 Term 3回歸遠距教學，其餘產業皆恢復成放緩前的第三階段管制。

可惜，第二波沒能及時回應，單日數百宗確診人數遲遲不見好轉讓維州政府甚為頭疼。為了對抗疫情攻擊，減少醫療設施和醫護人員的壓力，州政府7月22日公布新規定：大墨爾本都會區的人外出一律得戴上口罩才能出門，延續至今。

自七月進入維州緊急狀態 (State of Emergency)以來，疫情仍未見大幅改善且確診人數居高不下，於是州政府八月初宣布全州進入災難狀態 (State of Disaster) 開始第四階段管制。墨爾本於8月2日起實施有史以來首次全市宵禁，每晚8時至翌日清晨5時不准出門。而為遏止社區傳播，墨爾本居民只能在離家5公里範圍內購物及運動，外出一定要戴口罩，且每天只能有一人外出購物一次，運動時間也只限一小時，這期間警方擁有更大執法權。

9月6日，維州州長安德魯公布了墨爾本分為五階段逐步解封的路線。目前所處的第四階段限制將延期兩週至9月27日止，宵禁也將會持續，但從明日9月14日起將取代原來的8點，改成晚上九點開始實施。

雖然KITA重見天日接受演出預訂的日子在這艱困的時期只能一推再推，遙遙無期。但到底還是以人民的安全和健康為優先考量。請大家配合政府的規定，有症狀做篩檢，沒事就在家，一定得外出有需要就戴上口罩，各自為和緩疫情盡一份力吧。

維州在過去72小時的單日確診人數都在50以下，如果數字能夠繼續降低或延續如此狀態兩周，大家就有望提早進入解封第二步了。關於解封詳請請參考: https://www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/coronavirus/traditional-chinese

短期內，KITA多元文化表演藝術舞團仍無法為大家帶來現場演出，但我們也許會考慮開發線上教學課程，期待屆時新節目能開啟另一個表演預訂的模式。即使KITA的表演和學校演出預訂都將再次延期，我們會持續在臉書粉絲頁分享各種藝術表演相關的訊息，請鎖定關注我們喔：https://www.facebook.com/SabrinaDanceTroupe/