Australian (Open) Tennis and COVID-19

[jakeseven7]

I saw Djokovic on his balcony today, revving up a small group of kids on the other side of the road who were getting over-excited at seeing him and risking being run over. Luckily there was a security guard to keep them back. He seems to have some very ardent fans but I guess the more often he appears on the balcony (at least once a day, apparently) the more people are going to turn up in the hope of seeing him. A girl was there on Wednesday with a giant portrait of him. Not sure if she'd painted it herself or bought it but it looked like it was done in oil paint.

The support for Serena, Rafa etc is not so apparent but then AFAIK they have not come out on their balconies, maybe because of the 1-2 paparazzi with giant lens cameras who loiter around there.

I actually find his game exceedingly boring to watch. Almost as boring as reading about his moronic comments and escapades

Hoping I don't have seats for any of his games!

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Vic DHHS Daily Media Release
22 January 2021

Victoria has recorded one new case of coronavirus since yesterday in a person in hotel quarantine. The case is a woman aged in her 20s.


I looks like Vic DHHS may have decided to leave out whether cases are involved with the AO or not in the daily report. Though it is possible that Paula's case may have been recorded after midnight, and if so would be in tomorrow's official report.

 

[blackcat20]

Vic DHHS Daily Media Release
22 January 2021

Victoria has recorded one new case of coronavirus since yesterday in a person in hotel quarantine. The case is a woman aged in her 20s.


I looks like Vic DHHS may have decided to leave out whether cases are involved with the AO or not in the daily report. Though it is possible that Paula's case may have been recorded after midnight, and if so would be in tomorrow's official report.

The player that’s tested positive? Was mentioned on the news.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

The player that’s tested positive? Was mentioned on the news.

Yes. I was more reflecting on that VicDHHS was specifically listing the AO cases (had done so for every previous AO case), but today did not.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

If 1270 AO in quaratine is a bad thing, is 1500 Pacific Islanders in HQ worse?

Now I am, as I have previously stated, in favour of these initiatives. Personally I believe both are good initiatives.

 

[Must...Fly!]

If 1270 AO in quaratine is a bad thing, is 1500 Pacific Islanders in HQ worse?

Now I am, as I have previously stated, in favour of these initiatives. Personally I believe both are good initiatives.

Are you actually comparing the two?

 

[Anna]

On arrival night a pizza delivery guy rang up 5AA and said he’d just delivered 3 pizzas to a Mr N Djokovic.

From Woodville Pizza Bar I presume

 

[drron]

If 1270 AO in quaratine is a bad thing, is 1500 Pacific Islanders in HQ worse?

Now I am, as I have previously stated, in favour of these initiatives. Personally I believe both are good initiatives.

You need to look up how many cases of Covid they have had in the Pacific then compare that to the US and Europe where many of the AO competitors are coming from.Hands down I would rather be looking after the Islanders.

 

[RooFlyer]

If 1270 AO in quaratine is a bad thing, is 1500 Pacific Islanders in HQ worse?

Oh. My. Lord. Cannot one differentiate the risk of a) taking entitled, over-paid tennis players from COVID hot spots like Europe and USA, who have a track record of reckless COVID behaviour both before and after arrival, with b) talking taking well behaved, poorly paid ( ie with everything to lose) seasonal workers from very low COVID risk Pacific nations?

Just too funny.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Are you actually comparing the two?

I am in favour of both. I flagged in recent days that the Vic Gov was in discussions to have some additional international quarantine for required agricultural workers and I am most pleased that it has come to fruition.

Both programs may benefit workers from outside of Australia, but the bigger benefit is what Australia and Australians will gain from both programs having been run.

Ditto for the very wealthly movie personnel that have been arriving into Australia ( and NZ).

I look forward to similar future initiatives.

The important thing for me what is the net benefit for Australia and Australians. Mind you having said that it is also a very good thing that this latest initiative also benefits those in the Pacific Islands who have been taking a major economic hit.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

You need to look up how many cases of Covid they have had in the Pacific then compare that to the US and Europe where many of the AO competitors are coming from.Hands down I would rather be looking after the Islanders.

No need to look it up.

We all know that the actual Covid 19 risk is virtually zero, however they will be in quarantine for two weeks and the argument from some is that international quarantine should be .just be used for returning Australians.

 

[Must...Fly!]

No need to look it up.

We all know that the actual Covid 19 risk is virtually zero, however they will be in quarantine for two weeks and the argument from some is that international quarantine should be .just be used for returning Australians.

That is not the argument at all and it's been pointed out several times.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Shannon is a HS Journalist.

 

[RooFlyer]

Are you actually comparing the two?

I am in favour of both. I flagged in recent days that the Vic Gov was in discussions to have some additional international quarantine for required agricultural workers and I am most pleased that it has come to fruition.

Yeah, OK, although favouring or not wasn't the question. Querying whether the Pacific Islanders arrival and hotel quarantine was 'worse' than AO ones shows a bit of a lack of knowledge about some COVID risk factors to Australia, in my view. Its not only the COVID environment in the source countries (one benign, the other dire), but the culture and mentality of the arrivals (placid and happy to co-operate versus a number of spoiled and reckless individuals).

 

[Anna]

Meanwhile re the tennis

I saw Naomi Osaka being driven back from training at noon yesterday, and a towel drying in the sun on a chair on what I think is Rafa's balcony when I went for a walk at 7.30am. No paps around and a lot more open blinds and balcony doors at 7.30am than I've generally seen later in the day when there are people loitering for a glimpse, some with aggressive looking cameras. Djokovic's blinds were firmly shut though No point coming out if there's nobody to witness it

Seeing it's going to be 41 today here and didn't drop below 30 all night, they may all be wanting the 7am-12noon outdoor training slot today. According to Thiem's father, the outdoor training slots are 7am-12, 12-5pm or 5-10pm.

Post automatically merged: Jan 24, 2021

On yer bike.

That's not traditionally how cricket works, but could be interesting

 

[Anna]

So today someone has put out on the street opposite the hotel a poster of Serena and a blonde girl - looks like an underwear ad.

And I forgot to say that yesterday's van transporting Osaka had a police escort in front. Not sure why. The vans I've seen previously haven't had that. I've seen one van with dark tinted windows and the rest with normal windows. So it could have been Rafa in the tinted van and I'm none the wiser

 

[jase05]

So today someone has put out on the street opposite the hotel a poster of Serena and a blonde girl - looks like an underwear ad.

And I forgot to say that yesterday's van transporting Osaka had a police escort in front. Not sure why. The vans I've seen previously haven't had that. I've seen one van with dark tinted windows and the rest with normal windows. So it could have been Rafa in the tinted van and I'm none the wiser

Have definitely seen SAPOL provide a escort previously but it doesn’t seem to be regular

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Earlier in this thread the thought was expressed players being investigated as viral shedding case was somehow unusual, or even that it was only being done to allow players to play. Rather than it what just was done when it the analysis of the PCR test suggested that it may be a viral shedding case.

So I thought that it might be helpful to share a little more information on this sub-topic.

Note that with blood tests (Serology tests look for antibodies to see if a person has recovered from Covid 19. Because antibody tests do not detect active viral shedding, they cannot detect if an individual is infectious. The IgG and/or IgM antibodies can provide a clue if the infection was more recent or not. Other lab test can be performed to gain a better idea of whether a person is infectious) that these are not taken initially, but only once there is doubt on the positive result.



Why do some COVID-19 tests come back with a ‘weak positive’, and why does it matter?

In most cases, the genetic material of a virus is only detectable when we’re infected and the virus is still replicating and shedding into our respiratory passages.

But sometimes, even when the virus is no longer alive and replicating, it can hang around and be detectable by PCR. In these cases, it’s unclear whether the virus is infectious.

Why do some COVID-19 tests come back with a 'weak positive', and why does it matter?

A man in the Northern Territory recently received a "weak positive" test result for COVID-19. Understanding how coronavirus tests work shows us why this can happen from time to time.

theconversation.com

So if a weak positive is obtained one path that has regularly been gone done in Victoria is to investigate it as a viral shedding case. Not this will have been from the swabs taken for the PCR test and that any blood test will be taken once the decision has been made to proceed further.


and

What’s the difference between viral shedding and reinfection with COVID-19?

What's the difference between viral shedding and reinfection with COVID-19?

It's not only shedding and reinfection which are different — there are actually two types of viral shedding.

theconversation.com

Now with the AO flights, or other people on other international flights, one reason why you would want to know if it was an old or more cent infection is try and gauge if an infectious person had been on the flight or not.

 

[Pushka]

I think the shedding issue was raised because it seemed like so many cases (in relative terms) were deemed to be shedding and not infective and which seemed surprising given they’d done a negative test a couple of days prior. Seemed very convenient.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

I think the shedding issue was raised because it seemed like so many cases (in relative terms) were deemed to be shedding and not infective and which seemed surprising given they’d done a negative test a couple of days prior. Seemed very convenient.

But why is it convenenient? And people have often tested negative before returning a week positive test.

The viral shedding cases (apart from Tennys) have to stay in the hot-hotels anyway for the full 14 days before they can rejoin the AO. So is there any real "plot" that is somehow occurring by the AO cases having been determined as viral-shedding cases?

As soon as a AO person returns a postive result they are sent to a med-hotel. They cannot stay in the AO hotel while they await to be determined as a viral shedding case.

Tennys Sandgren remember had his test done 3 days before the flight. So that allowed the time for his case to be reviewed by health officials before he joined the AO bubble.



Also least in Victoria it has been commonplace to investigate week positive cases for some time. Though maybe other jurisdictions do not?


Remember also that the AO contingent are in a sporting bubble and those outside bubbles cannot re-enter them without rigorous testing. You saw this during the AFL bubbles.

Recently in the cricket Warner could not swiftly rejoin the Australian Cricket Team Bubble as well.