Some of our favourite stories from May include businesses pivoting during the pandemic and getting an inside look at the work of Canberra’s contract tracing teams. We also celebrated some good news, like the pubs reopening and Canberra being home to Dominos Pizza’s top delivery driver in Australia.
Canberra, get your hands on home-grown sanitiser
As hand sanitiser supplies dwindled worldwide, local distilleries transitioned (or ‘pivoted’) their facilities into creating product for frontline medical staff. Among those local manufacturers was Canberra distillery Underground Spirits, which, in response to the pandemic, made tens of thousands of litres of hand sanitiser for use by frontline medical staff in the ACT, before it was then made available to the public.
On the job with the ACT Contact Tracing team
CW journalist Denholm Samaras caught up with the ACT’s COVID-19 contact tracing team in May after all their hard work and contribution to flattening the curve in the National Capital. When they spoke to Canberra Daily, the ACT had just become the first Australian jurisdiction to have zero active cases.
Back to class for some as ACT schools reopen
School was out, and then it was back in, with students in pre-school, kindergarten, years 1, 2, 7 and some students from years 11 and 12 back on campus on 18 May. Students had been remote learning since 24 March and returned the classroom gradually, with students in years 3, 4, and 10 returning on 25 May, and years 5, 6, 8 and 9 on 2 June.
ACT COVID-19 restrictions ‘roadmap’ released
Due to the hard work of health services, contact tracers and the Canberra community, the ACT started to see some light at the end of COVID-19 tunnel. On 26 May, ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr outlined how the Territory would reopen, laying out a plan for the return of business, services and activities.
Belconnen home to Australia’s top pizza delivery driver
On a non-COVID related note, local man Peter Patrech was named Dominos Pizza’s top delivery driver in Australia in May, having delivered over 70,000 pizzas in the 16 years he’s worked at the Dominos Belconnen store. His favourite pizza? A BBQ chicken and bacon on a deep pan crust.
For more of 2020 in review:
January 2020 | February 2020Â |Â March 2020Â |Â April 2020Â |Â June 2020Â |Â July 2020Â |Â August 2020Â |Â September 2020Â |Â October 2020Â |Â November 2020Â |Â December 2020
