South Australia has brought in its own singles bubble for the state’s latest lockdown, coming under the ‘care and compassionate’ reason for leaving home throughout the stay-at-home orders.
The state entered a Stage 5 lockdown from 6pm on Tuesday, and the singles bubble rule was brought in from Thursday, July 22 for the remainder of the seven-day stint – and in the chance that might also be extended. That’s TWO DAYS after the South Australian lockdown began, while Sydney has hit the fourth week of lockdown without so much as a whisper of the words “single bubble”.
Premier Steven Marshall spoke about the new rule in a press conference on Thursday, which he explained was introduced to accomodate for South Australians who are in a relationship but not living together, or a single person living alone.
“We are very concerned about mental health and wellbeing at the moment,” he said.
“We are really concerned about people who are isolated, increasing levels of anxiety and we don’t want to exacerbate the health situation we have with coronavirus with health concerns around mental health.”
SA updates its stay at home orders to allow intimate partners and single person bubbles #SALockdown pic.twitter.com/vkcJGaTYCz
— Matt Smithson (@mattsmithson) July 21, 2021
The new single bubble allows people 16 years and older who lives alone to visit another person, whether that be a friend, partner, relative, or support person. Under the rule, the single person is only allowed to be the one other person in the house at that time, and if they’re visiting a partner, that relationship must have existed before the Stage 5 stay at home orders.
It’s modelled on the Victorian single person social bubble that was brought in during the state’s extensive hard lockdowns in the second half of 2020, which allowed people who lived alone to have another person visit their home for as long as they liked.
Meanwhile New South Wales has been following stay-at-home orders since July 9th, with the government avoiding all questions on the possibility of a single person bubble in Thursday’s press conference.
Thanks to the journo who tried to ask about the #SingleSocialBubble and the presser was ended.
— Melanie Tait (@MelanieTait) July 22, 2021
Premier Gladys Berejiklian hasn’t so much as breathed in the direction of announcing a single person bubble, even as it looks less and less likely the lockdown will end on July 30 as planned. New modelling from the University of Melbourne shows Sydney might be in this until September, so any day now for a single person bubble might be nice.
Cool cool cool cool cool, love this.
If you need mental health support, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or chat online.
Under 25? You can reach Kids Helpline at 1800 55 1800 or chat online.
If you require immediate assistance, please call 000.
