Victoria’s ghastly virus reputation makes it the new Tassie, writes SOPHIE ELSWORTH

OUR friends in Tasmania have long been the butt of jokes, and now I’m starting to understand how they feel.

Many of us have had a good-natured dig at those down south, with long-running jokes about the Apple Isle wheeled out at any opportunity.

But now the tables have turned.

Victorians are the new Tasmanians as we brace ourselves during these extremely testing times.

Melbourne is now commonly referred to as the COVID Capital — nd rightly so.

While the rest of the country appears to have returned to some sort of normality, in Victoria we are far from it.

The other day I was chatting to someone in Sydney, when he laughed and said to me: “How’s it going down there in Virus Victoria?”

Whenever I’m speaking to anyone outside of Victoria, I immediately hear pity in their voice coming down the phone line, knowing I’m a Victorian, born and bred.

No one wants a bar of us right now; we’re being treated like outcasts in our own country, and it’s starting to bite.

Melburnians are locked out of the rest of the state and Victorians are locked out of the rest of the country. We are unable to go to Tasmania if we wanted to.

Incredible, really, to think we are hostages behind our border walls.

Who could forget those infamous words that rolled off the tongue of Premier Daniel Andrews following South

Australia’s decision to open up its borders back in June to other states, but keeping Victorians locked out.

“I don’t want to be offensive to South Australians, but why would you want to go there?”

Well, the joke is on us Vics now.

Kick a Vic, as they used to say back during AFL State of Origin days.

Who would want to come to Virus Victoria right now?

You’d be hard-pressed to find someone itching to get down south as the pandemic continues to sweep the state, and any chance of Lockdown 2.0 ending seems a long way off.

Victoria has a bad rap now — not helped by some reckless behaviour on the part of some — and I reckon it’s here to stay.

So it’s fair to stay Victorians won’t be throwing stones any time soon at our interstate counterparts, as it’s a long road ahead before we are clear of this mess and, with that, we clear our bad reputation.