Judging by my Covid hotel quarantine, Sydney didn't get the ventilation memo | Debra Winter

In New York City I’ve been rolling down cab windows, even in winter. I’m in Australia now, but where’s the fresh air?

Living through the lockdown in New York City, hard hit by Covid-19 in the early months, made me vigilant – mask-wearing, social distancing and avoiding public transport became part of my everyday life since March. To even travel anywhere out of my 20-block radius, during an airborne pandemic, was unfathomable. But when a family member was given a grave health diagnosis, a travel exception had to be made – even if it meant being quarantined over Christmas.

To have been so careful for over 10 months and to then be quickly ushered, by Australian officials in blue combat fatigues, onto a bus with other international travellers, without dedicated windows that open, and then to be put in a room for two weeks, also without windows that open, was a situation I would never have put myself in in New York.