March 29
The lockdown on Monday Night threw a spanner in the works of my plan to reach 100 kilometres by walking on the treadmill at my gym.
So I asked Karen if she would walk with me around our local neighbourhood. I was concerned about recording the distance accurately and covering a lot of distance.
As we walked along I would decide we would go just one more street over, we won’t go here we change direction down there. We won’t stop here, we’ll go up to the petrol station.
I was concerned we were only covering five kilometres the first night but when I went back and went step by step on Google Maps we had covered much more. Karen of course already knew that.
Karen walked with me as I limped along over those two nights. I’m not sure I could have done it without her.
The first night we covered 7.6 kilometres walking for two hours and twenty minutes.
The first night we reached the end of the Kokoda Track.
March 30
Tuesday we did the first proper day of the second snap lockdown. I worked from home.
There were eight new locally acquired cases in Brisbane.
The Princess Alexandra Hospital it was announced would go into lockdown.
Ward 5D is the PA Hospital’s infectious diseases ward.
Two clusters of cases involved PA staff.
One linking back to the Doctor from the PA from March 12 that led to a landscaper testing positive on on March 25th and now a nurse who possibly got it from a returned traveller from India but had not had direct contact with the patient. The nurse from the PA and her sister had recently been in Bryon Bay for a Hen’s Party.
The Health Minister advised at the time of these cases not enough health workers had received their full vaccinations.
14,589 peole got tested.
For the first time masks were mandatory across the state.
Mater Mother’s hospital sent home staff, one of the new cases had been to the maternity ward recently.
With cases having travelled as far as Bryon Bay and Gladstone and with a few new daily cases it remained to be seen if the snap lockdown would end on Thursday night on the eve of the Easter weekend.
In Toowoomba one school had shut down since many of its teachers had recently been to Brisbane and were in lockdown. There was one case of COVID in Toowoomba hospital.
“This virus has not gone away, it is circulating we know in the Brisbane area, at least, so people should be taking those precautions of the COVID-safe behaviours that we’ve been saying all along — keep your physical distance, remember your cough etiquette, wash your hands often, all of these things remain important,” said Australia’s Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly.
On Tuesday night Karen and I walked together again to complete my March On Campaign for the charity Soldier On which helps veterans.
I promised the walk would be shorter than the previous night but it was still 4.4 kilometres covered in 1 hour and twenty five minutes.
I got past my intended goal of 100 killometres with 103 kilometres covered during the month of March.
I would now rest up my hammy and wait for the gyms to re-open.
As we closed out the month, I absolutely couldn’t believe it but $270 had been raised by my donors which was very humbling and good news for our veterans who needed and deserved our help.
There were 6,268 participants in the March On campaign.
They raised $1,549,576 dollars for veterans and covered 483,060 kilometres.
Amongst them was Soldier On patron 102 year old World War II veteran Sgt Bert who walked 159 kilometres himself during the March On campaign.
Soldier On, was a not for profit charity founded in 2012 to support veterans by John Bale, Cavin Wilson and Danielle Clout. Bale had been close friends with Lieutenant Michael Fussell who was killed in Afghanistan. Three thousand veterans and their families are supported by the charity with a holistic approach to their physical and mental wounds with employment programs, health and wellbeing services, learning and participation activities.
-Lloyd Marken
ONE YEAR EARLIER: March 30, 2020
