This year has been pretty rough COVID-wise.
We have been the most locked down city in the world
and it's been hard.
I'm declaring a state of disaster across Victoria.
This is a different game now.
Delta is really changing the rulebook.
From 6pm today,
all of Greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains,
the Central Coast and Wollongong will go into a lockdown.
New South Wales went into lockdown in different stages.
I live in an area where it wasn't a hotspot area,
but we were still in lockdown for months and months.
Over here, it's been tough.
We've spent months in lockdown, even longer in remote learning,
and I also lived in an LGA of concern,
which meant we had tougher restrictions
than the rest of the state.
The thing that sucked the most about lockdown,
probably, like, just not being able to go to school,
having to do online learning, all that kind of stuff.
Definitely being stuck at home for the holidays
because me and my family normally go, like, to other places
for the holidays, but since...
..because of COVID restrictions, we couldn't go anywhere.
Well, the worst thing probably
has to be all these, like, protesters,
like, anti-vax.
Like, "We don't believe in the vaccines."
It's kind of bad.
PROTESTERS: My body, my choice!
Well, the good things, which there aren't many of,
the vaccine rollout,
us being nearly 90% vaccinated
and starting from one of the slowest people
to get the vaccine to one of the highest.
So that's pretty good.
Australia gets vaccinated,
Australia is able to live differently.
FRANKIE: The best part about 2021 was being able
to spend more time with the family
and going back riding and doing some cooking.
It was also great to sleep in and exercise with my friends.
ALICE: I just enjoyed the break from school
and, like, the pressures of, like, just being so new to high school
and, like, having to try and work everything out.
I actually created better and stronger friendships.
My friends and I spoke a lot online
and I think that if we didn't have that way to connect
and we weren't at home talking to each other so much
that our friendship and our group wouldn't be as strong as it is now.
ALL: Three, two, one. Whoo!
Right now, in New South Wales,
lockdown is over for fully vaccinated people.
We're back at school and borders are reopening.
Well, it's slowly getting better. We still have to wear masks outside.
Not many people do, but we still have to wear them.
As more and more people are getting the vaccine,
like, the restrictions are eased, like, more and more.
Vaccination is being key to us being able to open up.
There's obviously a lot of excitement,
but it certainly has to be tempered by making sure
we continue to look out for each other.
(CHEERING)
It's great to be outside.
Well, in Victoria, we've got 90% vaccinated.
That means we can pretty much do most things.
We don't need masks in most situations,
the theatres are open - yay!
We're back!
I simply cannot tell you how proud I am
of every single Victorian who has persevered,
shown great courage and character,
but also shown amazing kindness towards each other.
Welcome home. Whoo!
LIV: I've got mixed feelings about the borders reopening.
The case numbers will inevitably rise,
and also new variants could come into the country,
but also it's a great thing.
You can travel interstate and internationally
to visit friends and family
or just go on a holiday, and that...
..we haven't been able to do that for nearly two years.
I hope that 2022 includes no lockdowns
and we get to go and do all the fun things
and more restrictions will ease.
OLIVER: I just want there to be no lockdowns,
we're just free to do whatever we want.
We can go to America, go to India, go to England, go wherever,
'cause the borders will be open,
we can go anywhere and the world will be free of COVID.
Honestly, anything better than the last two years would be great.
Well, I hope there'll be less protesters
and COVID will be a thing of the past
and I can tell stories to my grandchildren, like...
(IN DEEP VOICE) ..back in my days there was a thing called COVID-19.
It was very bad, and luckily I was a survivor.