Australia sees a path out of the pandemic, but it’s a winding one.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia has outlined a Covid exit plan that will include the end of lockdowns and travel restrictions for vaccinated residents, but it’s not clear when those things will come to pass.

Many people remain locked at home, lamenting canceled vacations or missed weddings and funerals, while businesses have once again been thrown into uncertainty and deeper debt. What’s worse, the transition plan will be slow going because vaccination rollout continues to be constrained.

Even as people in the country follow the daily news conferences and numbers of new Covid cases; even as they call again and again to schedule vaccinations, if they are even eligible, many can’t help but think: It didn’t need to be like this.

With a different bet on a different vaccines a few months ago by the government, with more diversification of options, more people would be vaccinated by now and the more contagious Delta variant would not be moving as quickly through the population — nor would it be as frightening.

Yet looking ahead, although there is a need for stamina, there is also reason for hope.