On many occasions COVID-19 has flared up at sensitive times of the year in national life.
Community transmission of the coronavirus re-emerged at such a moment this week, as JobKeeper wage subsidies ended for businesses and people prepared for Easter holidays.
Relatively low case numbers in recent weeks, combined with the beginnings of the vaccine roll-out, had lifted the mood and COVID-19 faded into the background as the nation seemed to settle into something like normality.
The coronavirus cluster in Brisbane, and the city's snap three-day lockdown, is a jolting reminder yet again that we're not out of this yet.
In fact, there's a long way to go, and many Australians remain vulnerable to the health and economic devastation of this pandemic.
Authorities will watch with concern the course of events in Queensland over coming days.
The Brisbane cluster has grown to seven cases with evidence of significant community transmission.
What appears to have the state's government particularly worried is that the infected people had been out in the community, travelling to central Queensland and northern NSW.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who admitted on Monday to a sleepless night over the rising case numbers, said the lockdown would be reviewed ahead of the Easter break.
Until then, it's a return in Brisbane to those conditions that grew so familiar despite being so alien in 2020: closures for schools and non-essential businesses, residents leaving home only for essential tasks, and mandatory face masks.
Even a year into the pandemic, governments are still honing their response, and their approaches to the crisis remain disparate.
Queensland's government, having been re-elected on the back of its handling of COVID-19, has decided a short city-wide lockdown is the way to stop the virus taking off. It worked for the city in January.
It brings an awful cost to businesses, already struggling from a lack of tourism due to the pandemic.
As always with COVID-19, only with the benefit of hindsight will the right decision really become clear.
