TWO hundred and sixty-six days ... or nearly nine months.
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That's how much hard work the community has put in (up to January 18) to ensure the Mid North Coast local health district has managed to stay COVID-free.
That's an area that covers Laurieton to Woolgoolga.
Concerningly, in recent weeks around town there has been an alarming increase in numbers of people gathering well within one and a half metres of each other.
This isn't a tourist-bashing exercise because as locals we are well aware that without them places such as our own don't thrive.
But you need to go no further than the breakwall in Port Macquarie in the middle of the day (particularly at the weekend when the sun is shining) to see that social distancing has gone out the window.
Complacency is starting to creep in.
We have shown great control to keep this part of the country COVID-safe for so long, so it would be nice to see people from outside the area contribute to the cause.
Or at least make some sort of an attempt.
Gathering in groups of up to 10 while taking up three-quarters of the breakwall footpath is not the place to hold your long-lost catch-ups.
There's ample amounts of grass barely metres away that would be much more suitable.
Businesses around town are doing their absolute best to make their places as health compliant as they possibly can be.
I went to a cafe on Clarence Street in Port Macquarie on Friday, but wasn't allowed to order until I had checked in, even though I would be standing outside while I waited.
This is what should be happening.
So it was pretty disappointing that barely half an hour after leaving that cafe there were people walking four-abreast along the breakwall or hugging and slapping friends on the back that they clearly hadn't seen for some time.
If we're being COVID-safe while inside, we should be doing the same in a general setting.
Surely we've seen enough from the clusters in Melbourne and the Northern Beaches of Sydney to realise it only takes one person doing the wrong thing before the situation escalates.
Ask anyone who has spent time in lockdown in either of those locations whether they want to go back to that.
Their response would be a resounding no.
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