Coronavirus Australia: Taking small steps to leave the COVID-19 lockdown

Every Friday night for the past 10 years, the Ely family has sat down for a traditional Jewish feast and lit candles for the Sabbath together.

"I was able to do a drive-by to my parents just to pick up a lot of the special foods that we have for the entirety of Passover, and then having to go back home on my own was a bit depressing," she says. Social distancing restrictions that forced residents to stay at home except for the most urgent tasks have been eased slightly, allowing two people, and their dependent children if they have them, to travel across the state for home visits under care provisions.

Berejiklian has made it clear she wants a further easing of restrictions on outdoor gatherings later this month, including removing the limit of two people, and a lifting of bans on outdoor gym equipment and playgrounds. The fear, anxiety and distress once held about the virus may be easing as infections fall but the shock of an economy facing 10 per cent unemployment, joblessness and business failures has barely begun.

Beyond Blue, for example, has had a 40 per cent jump in calls since the start of the pandemic. Its chief Georgie Harman says there has been a shift in the fears expressed by those contacting the organisation's helpline. "The kinds of trends we are seeing and the major issues people are talking to us about first and foremost are isolation and loneliness, people feeling very disconnected," Morgan says.

"The reason we're allowing people to do this, to reduce isolation, to improve mental health and give people that bit of contact which they haven't had – for some people, if you're working for home – for a very long time."

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