The days of pandemic panic have long gone - but fear hasn't quite evaporated. Talk to the worst hit sufferers and it's clear the scars heal slowly.
And now the ACT health authorities are forecasting an imminent doubling or tripling of the current 1000 or so cases a day. The devious virus still morphs to attack.
"I am so scared of catching it again," says Nicoletta Romor. She caught it three weeks ago, along with her son and daughter, and got a bad dose, with vomiting.
She's triple-vaxxed and now clear of the virus physically - but not mentally: "If it happened again, I think that this time I couldn't deal with it."
She wears a mask inside and outside, including in the clear morning air of an uncrowded Garema Place in Canberra city centre. She and her son Scott wear masks but she hates it: "We can't live in this manner."
Another passer-by in Civic also lives in trepidation. There's no panic from Macon Cooper about the possible increase to 3000 new cases a day - but there is trepidation.
"I had COVID about a month ago," he says. "It was really terrible. I had chest pains. I didn't need to be hospitalised. It was more just the alienation of staying home that really got to me, and being away from the world and all the general things you can do. It's all the little things you miss."
He fears long COVID. The experts say that even if you get a series of mild attacks, they could add up to serious symptoms in time. The condition is emerging but barely understood at the moment.
"I don't want to have it again. There's only so many times you can have it before there are long-term effects," the 27-year-old says.
He thinks his young age means he would survive another attack, but that doesn't mean he's nonchalant. "If I get it again, I should be alright but, at the same time, it's just not something you want."
That phlegmatic attitude is common amongst people The Canberra Times talked to. The response often went along the lines of: "I'll survive but I really don't want it." That included vaccinated people who had already had it but who still fear a second infection was on the way.
"I might get sick but I think I should be OK," was Tony Shields' optimistic view.
And he's agnostic on whether a mask mandate should come back: "I don't know about mask mandates in crowded places. It doesn't worry me if we have to wear them."
His lack of fear was common.
People are learning to live with the virus. "I'm not really afraid. I think it's just like a lot of other diseases where you have to be careful," Brent Sargent, on a visit from Sydney with his family, said.
"A mask mandate is probably a bit extreme at this point."
People take the pandemic for granted. It's like a smell you cease to notice. "I'm not worried about the COVID pandemic because I think it's been overblown," Angela Heanes said.
She's been vaccinated but doesn't wear a mask "because it's not good for my health. It turns me into a panic attack, and I don't like that. It feels like someone is trying to smother me."
"People have got to be responsible. People have to look after their own health and take advice from their own doctor."
