ON Sunday afternoon the suggestion a positive coronavirus case had visited Newcastle hotels was a swirling rumour.
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By the next day, police had been forced to temporarily close a testing clinic at Warners Bay after confirmation of a Sydney case's visit reignited the simmering alarm in the region. Such is the speed of the pandemic. As Victoria's deadliest figures to date proved on Wednesday, the first signs of trouble are heralds that more is already in train.
That state's curfew and stringent lockdown rules are a possible future that no one in NSW would wish to see replicated. As Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews continues to plead, day after day, sticking to the rules is the only way through the current predicament. In NSW, Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Wednesday talked of a steadied rate of cases. It did not assuage fears north of the border, however, as Queensland shut its border to the rest of NSW just a week after it locked Sydney and the Central Coast out.
In this space on Wednesday the Newcastle Herald expounded on the way masks have become a political symbol in other parts of the world. They are no panacea - and have been described as the fourth line of defence by this state's leaders - but every bit counts.
Every case avoided helps flatten the curve, a phrase that meant nothing to most in 2019 and could mean everything by 2021 if we act responsibly and purposefully throughout the months ahead.
While cabinet rooms and press conferences have been the most visible signs of the ongoing fight against coronavirus, it is in mundane places that the battle will be won. Pubs, restaurants, public transport and other areas where clusters have emerged are the front line before the ramparts of hospitals and testing clinics manned so bravely by our health workers.
Those longing for the normal life we are missing must become the loudest advocates for doing what we can to stem the spread of the virus. It is the only path before us until the race for a vaccine finds its finish line. What may look like paralysis in many parts of our country must instead be readiness and fortitude.
Forewarned is forearmed, the saying goes, and whether this second wave in Australia crashes through the Hunter with full force is largely up to us all.
The small choices matter, given how virulent COVID-19's spread has proved. While we await the results of those tests taken by so many earlier this week, it is fitting that we also reflect on how we can fortify the individual walls we have each designed to keep the threat at bay from ourselves and those we hold dear.
It defies probability that anyone has reached this stage of the pandemic and does not know, at least in general terms, what steps they can take to protect themselves and those around them. That knowledge simply must become action now. This too shall pass, but we cannot pass the buck.