We could almost hear a collective groan sweep across regional Victoria when Premier Daniel Andrews announced a return of stage-three restrictions.
Most of us had expected as much as it became obvious a clamp down on Melbourne was failing to prevent COVID-19 from escaping into the regions, let alone quelling its infection rate in the state’s capital.
With an even tougher and necessary tightening of the screws in Melbourne has come another six weeks of hunkering down in the regions – albeit to nowhere near the extent of metropolitan areas.
Returning to tougher restrictions is like being in a fist fight against a rugged bully. We’ve copped an early glancing blow to get the donnybrook started, dodged a heavy second punch to generate some confidence and thrown a few jabs of our own.