All of this ducking and diving to dodge COVID-19 is taxing and tiring.

First we're sitting next to someone at a show who tests positive five days later.

Then we're doing a road trip with someone and hanging out with them for 36 hours before they test positive later that night.

Others of us are working side-by-side with someone on a job who tests positive about three days later.

Sometimes, meetings are being rescheduled four times to get all of the key players in the same room, coronavirus-free.

COVID-19 is like love, actually.

It's all around!

Then suddenly it really hits home.

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Doing a RAT at the kitchen bench recently, my youngest told me something was very wrong with the test because it had showed up positive straight away.

"Dodgy test!" she says.

Here she was in the denial stage.

"Don't panic," I say, panicking slightly.

"Let's check it again in 10 minutes."

In 10 minutes the RAT showed a very clear positive result; two fat lines as plain as day.

"Uh-oh!" she says.

Immediately she realised she was no longer going out that night to the event she had been looking forward to for weeks!

After a flash of anger and disappointment, she found a face mask and retreated to her bedroom.

She made a sign for her door:

Knock three times if you need to deliver something.

(Or just say: Hi!)

Then leave!

Imagine growing up in a world where kids are well-versed in the need to isolate themselves to look after the whole group.

Turned out those of us who grew up in the 1980s really did have it pretty easy!

Luckily, my 11-year-old has an alter ego, Joline, so I messaged them both over the next seven days of self-isolation!!

Australia has the highest per capita COVID-19 infection rate in the world now.

It's hard to imagine.

With about 40 people dying from the virus every day nationwide, health authorities are rightly concerned the pandemic has slipped off the national agenda.

Almost 7800 Australians have died from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, however, science and health writer Jane McCredie says "we have pretty much stopped talking about the biggest challenge our health system has ever faced".

In The New York Times, Damien Cave reported on how Australia saved thousands of lives throughout the global pandemic while COVID killed one million Americans.

"Australia's COVID death rate sits at one-tenth of America's, putting the nation of 25 million people (with around 7500 deaths) near the top of global rankings in the protection of life," Cave wrote.

He continued that while Australia restricted travel and interaction until vaccination was widely available, there was more afoot than that: "Australia's COVID playbook produced results because of something more easily felt than analysed at a news conference. Dozens of interviews, along with survey data and scientific studies from around the world, point to a lifesaving trait that Australians displayed from the top of government to the hospital floor, and that Americans have shown they lack: trust, in science and institutions, but especially in one another.".

Warm fuzzies aside, communities that trust each other always do better.

Post-election reset on Saturday, hopefully we can get back to focusing on what's really important: looking out for each other.

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