MELBOURNE: When Katherine Reed heard Melbourne's virus-inflicted lockdown would be tightened and extend for six more weeks, she began to cry.
The 32-year-old lives alone and has been working at home since March, when the southern hemisphere summer turned to autumn.
Like millions of others living in Australia's second city she now faces at least another six weeks of winter isolation.
"I understand the increased lockdown," she said, lamenting "cruel and misguided" rules that allow partners, but not friends, to visit.
From the start of this world-enveloping pandemic, experts had warned there would be bad times and good, setbacks and advances in bringing the virus to heel.
But that has not made the new stop-start existence any less strange or any less difficult to bear.
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