Australian (Open) Tennis and COVID-19

[Lynda2475]

eah, without the media we might delude ourselves that COVID-19 is well and truly under control throughout our nation, the healthcare system is under no strain whatsoever, and the mortality rate is vanishingly low. Lucky we have a free press.

Dont get me wrong, I believe that Covid-19 is completely under control in Australia, and that all state borders should be open. i do not agree with slamming border shuts to whole states or LGAs when there is a handul of community cases.

Any restrictions need to be more nuanced, sure if someone has been identified as a close contact to a case, restrict that inividual from visiting for 14 days but not everyone else who lives in a region.

Its one reason I am so opposed to the AO being held, welcoming people into the country from high risk locations when there are almost 1.5 million Australians in 10 Sydney LGAs that cant go to Victoria (including about 1000 Victortians trapped there). Its rdiculous.

Even if you dont agree with the questions, the media have a right to ask them. You dont hve to read the coverage, but they are allowed to print it.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

The health workers doing the tests at AO HQ are from the same company who managed St Basils one of the nursing homes with the highest death rates and worst infection control during the 2nd wave - so that doesnt bode well.

Ok, I'll bite

So you believe that The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia who own and manages St Basil Homes for the Aged in Victoria are somehow linked to the AO testing program in providing staff in a significant and meaningful way?

Konstantinos Kontis the Chairman of St Basil's Homes for the Aged also stepped down from that role in September.


Or are you perhaps talking about a different company brought in after the cough hit the fan?

 

[Lynda2475]

Never mentioned the owners of the home, but ABC is reporting the operators Aspen Health:

"The Victorian government has outsourced a critical part of its Australian Open quarantine system to a private contractor involved in the St Basil's nursing home disaster which led to the deaths of 45 elderly residents."

Lots of confused reporting this morning, one breath Vic Govt says they arent funding any AO HQ, but in next breadth they are acknowledging awarding contracts to Apsen, providing police presence etc. AO bos stating earlier he didnt know how much of the $40m Vic Govt would cover.

Vic Govt trying to distance themselves from a potential disaster if a case gets out.

 

[tomlee1986]

This could be another disaster in the making!

Never mentioned the owners of the home, but ABC is reporting the operators Aspen Health:

"The Victorian government has outsourced a critical part of its Australian Open quarantine system to a private contractor involved in the St Basil's nursing home disaster which led to the deaths of 45 elderly residents."

Lots of confused reporting this morning, one breath Vic Govt says they arent funding any AO HQ, but in next breadth they are acknowledging awarding contracts to Apsen, providing police presence etc. AO bos stating earlier he didnt know how much of the $40m Vic Govt would cover. Vic Govt trying to distance themselves from a potential disaster if a case gets out.

 

[Must...Fly!]

Tennis Australia says it will pay for Australian Open hotel quarantine

Tennis Australia has conceded Craig Tiley spoke in error when he said the Victorian government would be subsidising hotel quarantine for Australian Open participants.

www.theage.com.au

Paying, not paying, who knows?

Clearly not the people the government claim are paying the whole bill.

What an absolute farce.

 

[tomlee1986]

Tennis Australia says it will pay for Australian Open hotel quarantine

Tennis Australia has conceded Craig Tiley spoke in error when he said the Victorian government would be subsidising hotel quarantine for Australian Open participants.

www.theage.com.au

Paying, not paying, who knows?

Clearly not the people the government claim are paying the whole bill.

What an absolute farce.

i think this will get even more ugly as the event comes closer to Feb 8

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Never mentioned the owners of the home, but ABC is reporting the operators Aspen Health:

"The Victorian government has outsourced a critical part of its Australian Open quarantine system to a private contractor involved in the St Basil's nursing home disaster which led to the deaths of 45 elderly residents."

You mentioned who managed it. That was the Church who owned and operated it when the problems started and not Aspen.

Your reference states "involved" .... and not that Aspen Health were the operators.

They arrived when things were already out of control and were thrown in at the deep end.

St Basil’s, Fawkner, is located in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, approximately 13 kilometres from the Central Business District. It was established as a hostel in 1996. A dementia-specific unit was added in 1998 and a nursing home section in 2005. It is currently registered for 150 places. St Basil’s is owned and operated by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia, which is registered as the Approved Provider within the meaning of the Aged Care Act 1997. The Chairman of the Board, at the time of the outbreak was Konstantin Kontis. The Chairman and Director of Nursing/Facility Manager (Manager) were the spokespersons for the Approved Provider during the COVID-19 outbreak​

Yes Aspen were involved, but as a company that was brought in after the situation was well and truly out of control, in crisis and and who were but part of the efforts to overcome that crisis. So Aspen was involved in overcoming a massive problem, rather than your clear implication that they helped to create the problem.

"so that doesnt bode well" should actually the reverse.





Finding a suitable workforce While negotiations between St Basil’s, DHHS and ACQSC were occurring, the DoH surge workforce co-ordinator in Canberra, had begun working with Aspen to identify replacements for all St Basil’s staff, to commence on 22 July. A small team from a culturally-specific aged care provider was recruited to provide on-site management support. Like St Basil’s, they provided aged care for a predominantly Greek-speaking clientele, and had been identified, strategically, as a suitable source of support for St Basil’s. Two senior staff volunteered; they were a facility manager, who had held several senior management roles and spoke Greek and a clinical care manager, who was a registered nurse also with management experience. With less than 24 hours’ notice, the replacement managers arrived at St Basil’s at 7 am on 22 July, along with a large number of agency staff and the Aspen team17, comprising three CFRs and several registered nurses (RNs) recruited from interstate. The Commonwealth Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer (CNMO) and a DHHS Deputy Secretary were also there to observe the handover

....


Return of St Basil’s Staff and Repatriation of Residents

After all residents had been transferred from St Basil’s, the independent adviser remained on-site to supervise thorough cleaning of the whole facility and gradual return of the manager, senior nurses and most of the original staff from furlough. The facility began to repatriate residents on 17 September. By late October, 43 residents had returned, and they and their families are apparently pleased with the service, with one major exception, which is that visiting was still not permitted. Very recently, visits via the ‘visiting room’ have been reintroduced but, at the time of writing, there are still no face-to-face visits. This has caused increasingly bitter complaints from relatives, who are aware that other RACFs have opened to visiting. As one of the review participants commented: “They have no risk appetite at the moment at all. I think they’ve been burnt very badly and are terrified of something similar happening again, so they’ve been very reluctant to allow visitation.” Nevertheless, residents can socialise with physical distancing, which they mainly observe, albeit with some lapses. Many have re-established friendship groups and some communal activities. St Basil’s advises that it has re-opened face to face visits effective 25 November.

https://www.health.gov.au/sites/def...s-and-epping-gardens-aged-care-facilities.pdf

 

[jakeseven7]

i think this will get even more ugly as the event comes closer to Feb 8

Why?

 

[tomlee1986]

Why?

The verbal fights between AO and Vic government, and possibly federal government

Post automatically merged: Jan 20, 2021

Appointing a company who helped overcome a crisis is a bad thing?

overcame a crisis? that firm is the cause of the aged care mess in the midst of the 2nd wave!

 

[jakeseven7]

The verbal fights between AO and Vic government, and possibly federal government

It’s hardly a fight . They are working together hand and glove it’s pretty clear it’s a coordinated media plan.

The media are just hyping it because there is literally nothing else happening that is media interesting in Australia right now virus related.

 

[tomlee1986]

It’s hardly a fight . They are working together hand and glove it’s pretty clear it’s a coordinated media plan.

The media are just hyping it because there is literally nothing else happening that is media interesting in Australia right now virus related.

Lets put it this way.. i hope you are correct

 

[jakeseven7]

Lets put it this way.. i hope you are correct

Let’s put it this way, it’s clearly a coordinated effort. It was the only reason it got off the ground in the first place.

As to whether something goes horribly wrong virus wise (eg leaking) yes I hope that does not happen obviously.

But basically we are all just sitting and waiting for the next hotel quarantine breach to happen, because it will happen and let’s just hope it’s in a state that can manage it.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

The verbal fights between AO and Vic government, and possibly federal government

Post automatically merged: Jan 20, 2021

overcame a crisis? that firm is the cause of the aged care mess in the midst of the 2nd wave!

Aspen Medical:

wherever you need us | Aspen Medical

www.aspenmedical.com

They have been involved in many such settings after the fact including the Ruby Princess.

It is a bit like fighting a fire. Get there early enough and you will have minimal damage. By the time Aspen and others arrived at St Basil's it was raging inferno.

Was Aspen "managing" St Basil's when the cases started there = no.



ie After the cough hit the fan...

Operational update – Victorian Aged Care Response Centre (8 September 2020 at 6pm)

A media release from the Victorian Aged Care Response Centre giving an update on how it is working to protect senior Australians from COVID-19.

www.health.gov.au

To stabilise and strengthen the Victorian aged care workforce during the pandemic, the Commonwealth have funded a surge workforce to assist aged care facility managers with more than 23,000 shifts being filled.

• 18,570 shifts filled by Recruitment, Consulting and Staffing Association (RCSA) staff.
• 2,904 shifts filled by Healthcare Australia staff.
• 1,307 shifts filled by 95 Mable contractors.
• 510 roles filled by Aspen Medical staff including Clinical First Responder deployments.
• 76 shifts filled by 12 HealthX staff.

 

[TheRealTMA]

Brilliant!

"

Tennis players had been ‘feeding’ mouse, says Neville​

By David Estcourt​

Yulia Putintseva took to social media to complain about hotel quarantine conditions.CREDIT:TWITTER
Tennis stars complaining about a mouse in their quarantine hotel room had been feeding the rodent, says Police Minister Lisa Neville.
Tennis star Yulia Putintseva had taken to social media to complain this week about the lack of fresh air in hard lockdown, and posting videos of mice in the quarantine hotel.
Ms Neville did not name the tennis star specifically but indicated the government suspects some people may have been feeding the mouse.
"As I understand there may have been some feeding going on," Ms Neville said.
"We did firstly move the particular tennis player the other day we've had at the hotel."
Ms Neville said players need to take responsibility to maintain cleanliness in their hotel rooms if they are under hard lockdown.
"Every tennis player needs to clean their own room and change their own beds if they want that," Ms Neville said.
"We will keep doing pest control if we need to but hopefully that pest control work that was done this week will have fixed the problem."
Ms Neville added that many tennis stars had thanked the Victorian government for holding the Australian Open, and that the government was happy to have the players in Melbourne for the Grand Slam.
"We love having them here," Ms Neville said.
"

 

[Pushka]

Brilliant!

"

Tennis players had been ‘feeding’ mouse, says Neville​

By David Estcourt​

Yulia Putintseva took to social media to complain about hotel quarantine conditions.CREDIT:TWITTER
Tennis stars complaining about a mouse in their quarantine hotel room had been feeding the rodent, says Police Minister Lisa Neville.
Tennis star Yulia Putintseva had taken to social media to complain this week about the lack of fresh air in hard lockdown, and posting videos of mice in the quarantine hotel.
Ms Neville did not name the tennis star specifically but indicated the government suspects some people may have been feeding the mouse.
"As I understand there may have been some feeding going on," Ms Neville said.
"We did firstly move the particular tennis player the other day we've had at the hotel."
Ms Neville said players need to take responsibility to maintain cleanliness in their hotel rooms if they are under hard lockdown.
"Every tennis player needs to clean their own room and change their own beds if they want that," Ms Neville said.
"We will keep doing pest control if we need to but hopefully that pest control work that was done this week will have fixed the problem."
Ms Neville added that many tennis stars had thanked the Victorian government for holding the Australian Open, and that the government was happy to have the players in Melbourne for the Grand Slam.
"We love having them here," Ms Neville said.
"

But it must have got there in the first place and then she had another one in the next place? I smell a mouse

 

[drron]

In the old days ie before 2020 viral shedding meant just that.you were shedding virus that could infect someone else.Now it means that plus any little bit of the virus as well.
Hopefully the expert committee that Victoria has are doing viral assays to show that it is not live virus that is being shed.Although it was believed that live virus shedding was for a maximum of 17 days,longer if you are immunocompromised a study released last week challenges that assumption.

The Study was the SIREN study which was conducted in the UK following health care workers.This is the first few paragraphs.

People who have previously been infected with covid-19 are likely to be protected against reinfection for several months, but could still carry the virus in their nose and throat and transmit it to others, according to a study which regularly tested thousands of healthcare workers.1

The preprint reported interim results from Public Health England’s Siren study between 18 June and 24 November 2020. During that period, researchers detected 44 potential reinfections and 409 new infections. This equated to an 83% rate of protection from reinfection, which appeared to last for at least for five months from first becoming sick.

The research team warned, however, that early evidence from the next stage of the study suggested that some people who are themselves protected by antibodies still carry high levels of virus and could continue to infect others.

Susan Hopkins, Public Health England senior medical advisor and Siren study lead, said, “We now know that most of those who have had the virus, and developed antibodies, are protected from reinfection, but this is not total and we do not yet know how long protection lasts. Crucially, we believe people may still be able to pass the virus on.”

Covid-19: Past infection provides 83% protection for five months but may not stop transmission, study finds

People who have previously been infected with covid-19 are likely to be protected against reinfection for several months, but could still carry the virus in their nose and throat and transmit it to others, according to a study which regularly tested thousands of healthcare workers.1 The...

www.bmj.com

Genomic studies are not that likely to be helpful in the majority of the AO cluster as most are from countries that have been overwhelmed so genomic studies only done on a few.In the UK it is reported genomic studies are only done on 5-10% of Covid cases.
So I would rather these words were coming from Prof.Allen Cheng,not a politician.

 

[RooFlyer]

I think the "shedding" is also now becoming a little too prevalent as an explanation.

Shhhhhh! It’s code for “positive virus test amongst our tennis players? Not a problem!”.

In another tack, a bit of a barney today between Tennis Australia and the Victorian government about who pays for the hotel quarantine. TA seriously was expecting the government to be chipping in. Government says no. Government will be paying TA something, however.

So the question is, how could this event be planned so meticulously and a thing like that be uncertain?

And TA is borrowing to fund the event which will be a huge loss. It’s exhausting it’s $80mill cash reserve.

Helps to show what a dumb idea it was to hold the event on the side of the government ( COVID risk hypocrisy) and TA (might send it to the wall).

How many other events - including first class world events have had to be canceled because of COVID?

Cheerleaders, carry on!

 

[Pushka]

And TA is borrowing to fund the event which will be a huge loss. It’s exhausting it’s $80mill cash reserve.

But we don't know the penalty they would have to have paid for cancellation, and no insurance. However, this is not a reason to risk the introduction of Covid.

 

[dajop]

I'm not a big fan of the event, and it is a slap in the face for Australians either "stuck" overseas or merely wanting to come home to visit family. But, can we dispense with the hysteria, please?

There was until recently a 6000 person cap a week for Australians coming home, so during the month of December it is entirely plausible that as many as 24,000 travellers arrived on Australian shores (including the author of this post) that could have "reintroduced covid". And even with reduced caps since the second week of January, it is still possible within the revised caps for 18,000 travellers (plus the AO contingent) to arrive in Australia this month. Yes, I get the hypocrisy about allowing in spoilt brats to hit a ball around court, but 1200 represents about 6% of total intake for the month, and this particular cohort will get tested more than the other 94% - both before and during their quarantine period. I'd say the risk is increased, but not quite as significantly as many make out.

 

[Pushka]

I'm not a big fan of the event, and it is a slap in the face for Australians either "stuck" overseas or merely wanting to come home to visit family. But, can we dispense with the hysteria, please?

There was until recently a 6000 person cap a week for Australians coming home, so during the month of December it is entirely plausible that as many as 24,000 travellers arrived on Australian shores (including the author of this post) that could have "reintroduced covid". And even with reduced caps since the second week of January, it is still possible within the revised caps for 18,000 travellers (plus the AO contingent) to arrive in Australia this month. Yes, I get the hypocrisy about allowing in spoilt brats to hit a ball around court, but 1200 represents about 6% of total intake for the month, and this particular cohort will get tested more than the other 94% - both before and during their quarantine period. I'd say the risk is increased, but not quite as significantly as many make out.

I very much doubt that the hotels could actually service that number of people. And the Qld thing meant that many had to repeat their two weeks stay. The cap is meaningless if there are no hotel spaces and people to provide security.