The news three more residents had tested positive to COVID-19 was greeted with widespread dismay in the Eurobodalla Shire on Monday, August 10 and Tuesday, August 11.
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That two school students were amongst them was cause for even more concern and our hearts go out to them and their loved ones.
The last places we want this deadly virus circulating are those where we congregate on masse at either end of our human life cycle - schools and aged care facilities.
Hospitals and medical clinics hold the balance on that see-saw - and we do not want the virus there either.
This is not about pointing fingers - it is about trying our best to get it right.
Some three-and-a-half weeks after a fresh round of positive cases was reported in Batemans Bay on July 17 and 18, many felt we had cause to relax.
Not so. That was never true and will not be so until a viable vaccine is found.
In fact, the source of infection for one person who subsequently visited three shire clubs in July, including Club Narooma, has never been determined.
Yes, the two-week mandatory self-isolation case had expired for the eight cases associated with the Batemans Bay Soldiers Club. Despite that time elapsing, contact tracing and widespread public health warnings, a new group has tested positive.
Southern NSW Health District has confirmed the trio was a close contact of one of the original people identified in the Soldiers Club cluster.
Late on Tuesday, August 18, despite a slew of tests, no more positive cases had been found, but we cannot afford to relax.
Quiet, beautiful coastal towns such as Narooma feel safe - and that is exactly what will draw people from other areas to them - and increase the risk of the virus rearing its head again.
The virus continues to circulate unseen and can emerge when our guard is down - as these latest cases show.
The Narooma News recommends that everyone wear masks in public if you cannot keep a safe distance from other people.
It won't be over until it is over.
We do not wish to lose one resident to this virus. Reader Nerida McKechnie was alarmed at a recent visit to a Batemans Bay supermarket to find no sanitiser available and groups of people congregating closely.
However, she was delighted to see a much better standard of behaviour in Narooma.