If you live in New South Wales, then going outside for no reason is now illegal. Yep, you read that correctly, in fact you could cop a fine or be thrown in jail for up to six months if you decide that social distancing is not for you and you’ll be breaking the lockdown rules.
The COVID-19 Restrictions on Gathering and Movement Order, which came into effect at midnight, means that if you’re leaving the house “without a reasonable excuse” then you could cop a six-month prison sentence or an $11,000 fine. If you’ve messed up particularly badly, you could even get both.
There are thing you’re allowed to do of course. Go and get groceries, go to work or school (if you’re not working or learning from home), picking your kids up from school, and going out to exercise (as long as you’re socially distanced and joined by one person from your household, that’s it). You can even donate blood.
If weddings and funerals come under the limits of people who can attend, the you can go to those, too.
If you want to do anything that doesn’t fall under any of those categories, stay home.
A Western Sydney man was arrested and denied bail last week after ignoring social distancing rules three times. He returned from the Middle East and was directed to spend two weeks quarantining, but was found in Pagewood, the Sydney CBD, and Camperdown.
He may have been the first person arrested for not self isolating, but with these news rules, there’s a good chance he won’t be the last.
New cases of COVID-19 are beginning to decrease, which is definitely good news. We aren’t anywhere near the end of this mess yet, but if people just stay inside we could have this knocked over in a few weeks. Even if that means giving out massive fines and jail time for people who are breaking lockdown to leave the house.
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