Coronavirus: Quarantined Kiwis warned to stick to the rules or risk second lockdown like Melbourne
A Kiwi living in Melbourne is urging quarantined Kiwis to stick to the rules or risk second lockdown. Victoria has reported a surge in Covid-19 cases over recent weeks with hundreds testing positive each day. On Saturday they recorded 217 new cases and three deaths. That followed 428 new coronavirus cases on Friday , the state's highest single-day total. The increasing numbers have sparked a second lockdown in the state and has prompted a word of warning from Sophie Fine, originally from Hamilton. Fine was surprised to hear that people arriving back in New Zealand had been breaking out of quarantine. READ MORE: * 'All I want is to hang out with mates and blast music' - teens talk living in a Covid world * Man who allegedly fled isolation hotel in Hamilton back in court * Coronavirus: Man accused of fleeing isolation facility now in prison * NZ can learn a lesson from Victoria: Dont lose elimination status * Coronavirus: why getting people to follow restrictions may be harder the second time There have been four escapes from isolation hotels, including Queenstown man Martin McVicar who allegedly cut through a fence of an isolation facility in Hamilton earlier this month. For those people [in quarantine] who arent doing the right thing, they need to think about other people, its other peoples businesses, its those people youve got to think of not yourself. And realistically what do you gain from breaking the rules? It's just silly. We have just got to stick together. The 32-year-old has been working from her Melbourne home since the middle of March. I think the big thing with Victoria going into lockdown, and not the rest of Australia, is that you kind of feel very isolated. You see your friends on social media and you can see the rest of Australia doing their own thing, going to the beach, going out for drinks, or whatever it might be and you are stuck at home. It doesnt feel like we are in it together, we feel like we are on our own, so I think that has been the hardest thing. However, Fine feels Victorians are taking the situation a lot more seriously the second time around. One Kiwi who is ending her time in Melbourne is Sharnee Corbett. The 25-year-old is leaving her Richmond apartment and returning to New Plymouth after having to go back into lockdown for a second time. We were a little bit gutted because we had just started to get back into a routine of going to the gym in the morning, going to work and coming home. They had about a month of normality before lockdown returned. She said the feeling around the Victorian capital is pretty grim. When we saw cases rise it was almost expected we would have to go back into lockdown. But morale is pretty low for a few people. Corbett is returning permanently, but she has three friends accompanying her who will work from New Zealand until everything has calmed down in Melbourne. People are looking for an escape. And mental health is probably the key thing that people are looking out for; they dont want to be locked up for much longer. She is also disappointed in hearing that people are breaking the quarantine rules in New Zealand. Ive had so many people say to me you must be so proud to be a Kiwi, and I really am. So people escaping isolation its disappointing to hear about that considering people think New Zealand is so awesome.