Canberra community spirit applauded by Barr after a week in lockdown

He never sees her, but it's a hurried mother from a few suburbs over. She made a detour on the way home, the kids in the car, couldn't stop to chat.

A stranger responding to the callout of a man struggling, sick and scared in isolation.

A few streets down, a van is busting with takeaway containers of creamy chicken pasta to be delivered to homes across the city.

Just a thank you or a smile is payment enough for the Denman Prospect family making thousands of meals a day using the money out of their own pockets.

A bus passes the van.

The driver's exhausted. He's taken on extra shifts to cover for colleagues stuck at home - not for money, just to keep it on the road.

There's only one passenger on board this morning. She's masked up and ready to get jabbed, one of thousands to "take up arms" against Covid in the past week.

One decision helping the ACT lead the country in vaccination rates.

She glances at her phone and smiles at a Ken Behrens meme, reposts it. An acquaintance sees the post in her feed, but ignores it because she has paperwork to do.

There's been a callout for retired and student nurses to help with the effort to jab and test, and she's busting to get started.

READ MORE:

A call to an old friend; texts offering a (figurative) shoulder to cry on, pointed effort to order takeaway from the struggling local restaurant, flowers delivered to the right person at just the right time.

These are the moments Chief Minister Andrew Barr was referring to when he delivered an emotional thank you to the Canberra community at today's press conference.

"In closing, can I thank Canberrans for supporting each other. The community effort to support those isolating and quarantining has been amazing," he said.

A short time later, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the ACT was "leading the way".

He was referring to vaccination rates, with the territory having the highest per capita rate in the nation.

But he could just as easily have been talking about the Canberra spirit: humour, humility and a willingness to do the right thing for the whole community, not just ourselves.

The kind of spirit that helped keep us out lockdown for over a year. And might just get us out of this one.

Our coverage of the health and safety aspects of this outbreak of COVID-19 in the ACT and the lockdown is free for anyone to access. However, we depend on subscription revenue to support our journalism. If you are able, please subscribe here. If you are already a subscriber, thank you for your support. You can also sign up for our newsletters for regular updates.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: