All International Arrivals into Australia to self isolate for 14 days

[dajop]

Here's a story about a guy who liked isolation so much he decided to stick it out for at least another month, all at the governments expense ....

'Breathtakingly arrogant': First person jailed for breaking hotel quarantine

“Your abject selfishness is made worse by the fact you used public transport, thus heightening the risk and the potential for harm to others."

www.theage.com.au

 

[auriga]

I was curious, so I looked at the sydney airport website. So we are expecting 9 international flight arrivals today. But how does that reconcile with expecting only 250 Australians to arrive home today???
The flights are averaging 30 pax each???

 

[RooFlyer]

I was curious, so I looked at the sydney airport website. So we are expecting 9 international flight arrivals today. But how does that reconcile with expecting only 250 Australians to arrive home today???
The flights are averaging 30 pax each???

Some may be empty repatriation flights for citizens of other countries, departing?

 

[OATEK]

There was a CX 777, ANA 787 and a freighter (Polat 767) arriving into SYD this morning over our place. I suspect quite a few flights are freight oriented.
Note: fixed

 

[PineappleSkip]

AN 787

AN is back from the dead! Or is that a ghost flight?

 

[Himeno]

AN is back from the dead! Or is that a ghost flight?

I would assume that is ANA/NH.

ANA is running their HND night slot flight to SYD at 3 weekly and have delayed their new day slot flight. NRT-PER is suspended.
Currently plan for all 3 flights to resume normal from May 16, though with the current situation in Japan and possible extension of their state of emergency nationwide by the end of the week and maybe past the current May 6 end date, those flight adjustments might last longer.
All other JP-AU flights (QF/JQ/JL/VA) are suspended.

 

[Max Samuels]

The media, rightly, tend to report such matters obliquely, because of the tendency fora report to induce more events.

Here’s one report
.Victoria's state of emergency extended as man dies while in Melbourne hotel quarantine

I can understand frustration at the restrictions. I think we all feel it. These are well intentioned but huge intrusions on public liberties. My own frustration is around the ambiguities and inconsistencies in the iso rules.

There is a website (yes, yet another one!) where people can report what they reckon are unreasonable policing actions around the restrictions.
Policing COVID

cheers skip

So I can tell you with absolute certainty that the person who "died" while in forced quarantine was in the same hotel as my dear friend, the person on whose behalf I started this conversation. Anyway, she says that the VERY next day, ALL detainees were allowed outside once a day for a walk for an hour (with a guard). Previously they could only open the hotel door to receive food. Coincidence? I think not. She also goes on to say that when they were locked away, at no time were they asked about any mental health issues etc that could be exacerbated by a 14-day imprisonment. Then, they were instructed not to talk to the media. Hmmmm..... I feel a law suit coming one.

Personally I think Chairman Dan and his bunch of cronies are preparing for a lawsuit. Because guess what???? The actual details of hotel imprisonment are decided state by state!!! Victoria allows no deliveries except for only 2, by family members, which will be searched and alcohol etc confiscated. Also allows no uber eats etc. Booze can only be purchased from the minibar. QLD, on the other hand.... hotel prisoners can get whatever they want delivered. My mate in Brisbane - a cop - says the orders given to them are "these people are not prisoners - they just can't leave their rooms - but they can receive take-away, deliveries etc. As much as they like".

So.... my question to those who are so supportive of these wonderful measures - WTF?

 

[Max Samuels]

0/1 is no-where near being correct, and perhaps you'd like to take your own advice about being flippant. And using someone's suicide to score points here is in pretty poor taste, IMO.

I still believe that end of all this you will be wrong - you've backed the wrong team my friend. The Australian Govt reaction to this has been so over the top that it will be used for generations as an example of terrible policy making...

People thought the stolen generation, at the time, was the "right" thing
People thought that interring Japanese-Americans in WW2, at the time, was the "right" thing
People thought that murdering a gay man if he was hitting on you was a legitimate defence, at the time, was the "right" thing
People thought that disallowing women to vote, at the time, was the "right" thing

I could go on.....

 

[RooFlyer]

People thought that disallowing women to vote, at the time, was the "right" thing

I could go on.....

People one person thought scoring points on social media with some-one's suicide was the "right" thing (and hasn't backed down on it)

Please stop digging the hole.

 

[Pushka]

I still believe that end of all this you will be wrong - you've backed the wrong team my friend. The Australian Govt reaction to this has been so over the top that it will be used for generations as an example of terrible policy making...

People thought the stolen generation, at the time, was the "right" thing
People thought that interring Japanese-Americans in WW2, at the time, was the "right" thing
People thought that murdering a gay man if he was hitting on you was a legitimate defence, at the time, was the "right" thing
People thought that disallowing women to vote, at the time, was the "right" thing

I could go on.....

I have no idea why you are using these examples? Even the opposition has been very bipartisan in this action and in SA our Labor opposition praised the actions of the SA Premier as we locked SA down quickly but fairly. So where does that place you in the political dimension?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I still believe that end of all this you will be wrong - you've backed the wrong team my friend. The Australian Govt reaction to this has been so over the top that it will be used for generations as an example of terrible policy making...

People thought the stolen generation, at the time, was the "right" thing
People thought that interring Japanese-Americans in WW2, at the time, was the "right" thing
People thought that murdering a gay man if he was hitting on you was a legitimate defence, at the time, was the "right" thing
People thought that disallowing women to vote, at the time, was the "right" thing

I could go on.....

You’re comparing two weeks in quarantine to the stolen generation? That’s going to lose any credibility you might have in an argument.

Tragic that one person has died from suicide during quarantine, but that is in no way indicative that the scheme as a whole is not valid. There are thousands of others who were saved, which makes it valid.

 

[PineappleSkip]

The actual details of hotel imprisonment are decided state by state!!!

I have railed against inconsistency and ambiguity in such measures. Clear and consistent rules would be good to have. And yes my brief transit locked up in a Hotel was indeed more miserable than my time under house arrest. But I didn’t feel sorry for myself because it was significantly reducing the risk that I would inadvertently infect and kill someone. For the same reason, we don’t drive recklessly.

It’s unfortunate that it came to this, but it was because so many were flouting the voluntary lockup we got an enforced one instead. The same enforced lockup that has been imposed in countless other countries.

 

[RooFlyer]

I have railed against inconsistency and ambiguity in such measures. Clear and consistent rules would be good to have.

Given that we only have to obey the rules imposed in the state that we are locked down in, I have no problem with simply following the rules imposed locally. Whether or not they can play golf in Victoria is of no interest or use to me here in Tas.

And within Tas, there are varying rules: road blocks vs none, closure of non-essential business vs non-closure, etc - very necessary because of the outbreak in the North-West of the state. I also can understand the reasons for that, and have no problem even with the intra-state 'inconsistency'.

But I like the rest of your post

 

[Max Samuels]

But I didn’t feel sorry for myself because it was significantly reducing the risk that I would inadvertently infect and kill someone.....

Maybe..... that's a big call. A really big call. Ultimately un-proveable. You can't prove that you saved lives. And I can't prove that you didn't. But what we CAN prove is that the country is in ruin, there will be millions of unemployed, and that we have seen a terrifying authoritarian side of our government that many of us couldn't foresee. To rule by fear is a really old trick from the playbook of dictators....

When is it enough? Today QLD announced "no new cases but we are still gonna keep you locked up". Is that reasonable? And if so, for how long? Where do you, PineappleSkip, draw the line between "safety" and "tyranny"?

For me? It was when they said I couldn't sit in a park alone and read a book.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Maybe..... that's a big call. A really big call. Ultimately un-proveable. You can't prove that you saved lives. And I can't prove that you didn't. But what we CAN prove is that the country is in ruin, there will be millions of unemployed, and that we have seen a terrifying authoritarian side of our government that many of us couldn't foresee. To rule by fear is a really old trick from the playbook of dictators....

When is it enough? Today QLD announced "no new cases but we are still gonna keep you locked up". Is that reasonable? And if so, for how long? Where do you, PineappleSkip, draw the line between "safety" and "tyranny"?

For me? It was when they said I couldn't sit in a park alone and read a book.

The alternative view to yours is that we look overseas and see tens of thousands dying because their governments didn't take the measures we took, until too late.

The alternative view to yours is that this isn't a terrifying authoritarian side of government, it's leadership. And having the guts to take the decisions they did, when they did.

 

[Pushka]

Maybe..... that's a big call. A really big call. Ultimately un-proveable. You can't prove that you saved lives. And I can't prove that you didn't. But what we CAN prove is that the country is in ruin, there will be millions of unemployed, and that we have seen a terrifying authoritarian side of our government that many of us couldn't foresee. To rule by fear is a really old trick from the playbook of dictators....

When is it enough? Today QLD announced "no new cases but we are still gonna keep you locked up". Is that reasonable? And if so, for how long? Where do you, PineappleSkip, draw the line between "safety" and "tyranny"?

For me? It was when they said I couldn't sit in a park alone and read a book.

But financial markets around the world are now cactus and likely global recession if not depression; PLUS they have lost tens of thousands of people. Many of them brilliant medical people. Australia has lost less than 100. What is your issue?

What Australia and New Zealand have done HAS saved lives. Every individual who followed isolation, DID save lives.

 

[drron]

Though I look overseas and see Taiwan with a population of nearly 24 million which has had just 422 cases of which only 55 were contracted locally.
Yet most schools,restaurants and offices remain open.
They did it by closing their border to China in early January.They were prepared.

 

[dajop]

They did it by closing their border to China in early January.They were prepared.

Yes, they did well but well prepared by previous experience, and an inherent distrust of the government of the PRC helped.

But, It would seem much of the cases in Australia - had the origins in the Anglosphere, although admittedly I haven’t reviewed the exact figures. China border was shutdown, with a handful of imported cases slipping through. Then Iran and Italy were shutdown but more cases slipped through than from China But it took quite some time to shutdown US and UK and that’s where numbers seemed to jump most significantly.

 

[OZDUCK]

Yes, they did well but well prepared by previous experience, and an inherent distrust of the government of the PRC helped.

But, It would seem much of the cases in Australia - had the origins in the Anglosphere, although admittedly I haven’t reviewed the exact figures. China border was shutdown, with a handful of imported cases slipping through. Then Iran and Italy were shutdown but more cases slipped through than from China But it took quite some time to shutdown US and UK and that’s where numbers seemed to jump most significantly.

This Australian Govt. Dept. of Health page shows, about half way down, that the majority of overseas based infections in Australia were acquired in Europe. With Cruise Ships running a close second. The 'Americas' were the third most common infection area. N.E. Asia only contributed a very small percentage.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) current situation and case numbers

I wonder if another very important reason Taiwan has done so well is that they banned Cruise Ships very quickly - in early February in fact..

 

[drron]

Yes, they did well but well prepared by previous experience, and an inherent distrust of the government of the PRC helped.

But, It would seem much of the cases in Australia - had the origins in the Anglosphere, although admittedly I haven’t reviewed the exact figures. China border was shutdown, with a handful of imported cases slipping through. Then Iran and Italy were shutdown but more cases slipped through than from China But it took quite some time to shutdown US and UK and that’s where numbers seemed to jump most significantly.

Though they only closed their border to the US and Europe indeed to all foreign travellers on March 20.Just 1 day before Australia.At that stage they had 169 positive cases.A month later still just 422 and their first day since the border closure of no new cases.

Taiwan Closes Borders in Preparation for Possible ‘Second Wave’ of the Coronavirus

The country has managed to contain the outbreak, but it’s on edge after an influx of imported cases from foreign tourists and returning Taiwanese travelers.

thediplomat.com