Australian Reports of the Virus Spread

[dajop]

Watching skynews and they don’t agree with the lock downs due to the severity of virus comparing it to the swine flu.
191 deaths out of 38,000 I think the coronavirus is just a bit more deadly.
Interesting there was some Spanish test that only 5% of people have had coronavirus so still a long way from herd immunity.

Yes, I think Uncle Rupert's position is quite clear. I hope he's not going stoke the bitter division here that has been stoked in the DSA.

 

[Astro]

What's everyone's prediction for the borders closure between Victoria and New South Wales? The full six weeks or sooner once everyone in Melbourne gets used to round two?

 

[Hvr]

The full six weeks

At a minimum the full six weeks. Probably longer if the numbers don't go way down.

Even if the other states suffer from their own rises in numbers they won't want us Melbournians there until we're considered free of infection.

 

[Astro]

It's a real concern for some

https://twitter.com/x/status/1280344387755470848

Language warning

 

[james4321]

Watching skynews and they don’t agree with the lock downs due to the severity of virus comparing it to the swine flu.
191 deaths out of 38,000 I think the coronavirus is just a bit more deadly.
Interesting there was some Spanish test that only 5% of people have had coronavirus so still a long way from herd immunity.

Well that’s only to be expected of Sky “News” one-eyed rubbish after dark commentators

 

[jakeseven7]

Well that’s only to be expected of Sky “News” one-eyed rubbish after dark commentators

They also need the economy open and operating, cash flowing so they can sell advertising.

So they are self serving in this regard.

 

[SydneySwan]

What's everyone's prediction for the borders closure between Victoria and New South Wales? The full six weeks or sooner once everyone in Melbourne gets used to round two?

Read tonight that the NSW Police Minister is complaining about the costs of policing the NSW - Victoria border and he is expecting Victoria to contribute. I was surprised that no arrangement had been agreed. So I think NSW will want to open the border the moment it is safe to do so.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

But who was taking care of the health aspects of the quarantine hotels?This is a massive oversight on the part of the Victorian Government.Especially as other States went with the police / ADF personnel in providing the quarantine hotel security.
Quite frankly one heck of a lot worse than the NSW Ruby Princess fiasco.

Yes I agree on the lack of appropriate public health oversight, and in earlier posts it was one of points I listed. In terms of Ruby Princess, total cases and economic damage will most likely be far worse. In terms of deaths the genomic sequencing should make the final death toll known. Currently probably zero, but I doubt it will remain so. The eventual genomic sequencing reports will reveal the total number of cases and deaths generated from this failure.

With respect to the health aspects no one has stated what happened, and who was doing what. Obviously health monitoring and testing of the quarantined was occurring, but there seems to have been zero public references as to who was doing it, and indeed who was doing what. There also seems to have been zero feedback from whomever was doing it with respect to what they may have as in breaches observed in terms of the poor practices of the security guards. Independent health monitory of the guards seems to have been non existent.

Who was monitoring the health aspects? Was anyone monitoring the hotel quarantine health aspects as an overall project, or was some just arranging the subset of nurses performing health checks and tests on the quarantines? One can guess that both politicians and public servants dropped the ball here.

The security staff too are at fault for while they were being exploited they should also have known better what to do to at least a certain level based just on what was public knowledge. Though yes proper training is required to achieve good PPE practices as but one example.

With respect to the security contracts, yes whomever (and it most likely a number of people) in the government/bureaucracy did not follow through with ensuring that appropriate services and value was being delivered and they are at best incompetent. Whether it was the same people who were also meant to arranging the health aspects is I believe unknown.

There was a need for speed and so the contract was rushed. So not not surprising that you would get problems. This was to be expected. The truly surprising aspect seems to be that no-one was checking for continual improvement. That initial contract/s should have been just the starting point. There should have been ongoing review and monitoring and indeed renegotiation of the contracts where required. None of this would appear to have occurred.


The enquiry when it is eventually completed will reveal much.

 

[jase05]

WA has capped international arrivals to 525 per week.

SA hasn’t put a cap on arrivals and Health minister Steven Wade said “SA are ready to bear the brunt of diverted flights from Victoria” and that “Every flight we can take from Victoria to SA means there will be more Victorian health officials out in the field to deal with the outbreak”
Contrast that to the state opposition who has called for Premier Marshall to meet with the PM and put a cap on arrivals stating “SA shouldn’t have to pick up the load of other states if they’re choosing to cap their numbers of international flights”

 

[N860CR]

What's everyone's prediction for the borders closure between Victoria and New South Wales? The full six weeks or sooner once everyone in Melbourne gets used to round two?

Wait and see what the next two weeks bring. This is very severe action that’s been taken in Victoria, so we’d expect to see massive increases in hospitalisation rates and sadly significant numbers of deaths.

If that happens, then we enter a new phase of severity. If it doesn’t... well time will tell.

 

[DC3]

What's everyone's prediction for the borders closure between Victoria and New South Wales ...

... time to find, and dust off, the crystal ball.

 

[p--and--t]

What's everyone's prediction for the borders closure between Victoria and New South Wales? The full six weeks or sooner once everyone in Melbourne gets used to round two?

Two weeks to find out how bad today's infections are.

Four weeks to find out if the lock-down measures are having any effect at all.

Six weeks to establish a pattern.

Eight weeks to have confidence we are on the right track.

10-12 weeks to start easing off.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

In two to three weeks time I will know a lot more to be able to guess, and indeed I think by then the trend should be clear to all.

From what I have understood of the new lockdown measures, they seem to be better thought out than the first time. So the benefit of hindsight is being used. Hopefully this will make them more effective.

Some of the loopholes and problems have been addressed.

Banning visitors to private homes is one of the more important changes, as behind closed doors many families and friends were not physical distancing.

Banning people from using their holiday homes is important as this was a common problem previously. With the GMMA boundary people being able to still use holidays homes would have opened massive holes and created mixing of different communities.

On the con side, is that after so many months that many may be too jaded to lockdown again well enough. This is one reason I am very much in favour of the no visitor rule.


The measure that was missing was unless I missed it was banning carpooling. Carpooling will normally mean that you are mixing households with people in close proximity, and for durations sufficient to transmit the virus. Plus how many people disinfect their car before every shared use? . This was stated as a problem with the hotel security guards. And I know from some of my friends who have workplaces that they have to attend that they were always concerned at the obvious carpooling that some of their colleagues were doing with each other.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Two weeks to find out how bad today's infections are.

Four weeks to find out if the lock-down measures are having any effect at all.

Six weeks to establish a pattern.

Eight weeks to have confidence we are on the right track.

10-12 weeks to start easing off.

If it is 3 months, the number of failed businesses will be horrific.

 

[Pushka]

Contrast that to the state opposition who has called for Premier Marshall to meet with the PM and put a cap on arrivals stating “SA shouldn’t have to pick up the load of other states if they’re choosing to cap their numbers of international flights”

The opposition are finding it hard to get traction these days. They did have a win with the bus thing for those impacted but that wasn't wide spread in the population And I don't think it was even the Leader but Mulligan huffing and puffing. And I had to laugh when he said we had already put in our fair share! Not sure where he dug that from. I'm betting the hotels and restaurants are welcoming the influx.

Banning people from using their holiday homes is important as this was a common problem previously. With the GMMA boundary people being able to still use holidays homes would have opened massive holes and created mixing of different communities.

Shame that they hadn't been more vigilant before school holidays started, and when it became first known that the quarantine issues were awful. Vic families travelling have likely spread the joy around in the last week. It was posted here multiple times weeks ago that this was a risk time and that may have come home to roost.

If we here in AFF could see the risk then why can't the experts? Not hindsight but we know that is how it will all be explained away.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Air NZ have put a temporary hold on new bookings Air NZ Temporary Hold
This effectively limits the ability of their citizens to return at least that’s the way it was interpreted when I watched on the news last night.
I am wondering if we might be heading in the same direction with various States starting to put caps on arrivals?

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

Shame that they hadn't been more vigilant before school holidays started, and when it became first known that the quarantine issues were awful. Vic families travelling have likely spread the joy around in the last week. It was posted here multiple times weeks ago that this was a risk time and that may have come home to roost.

If we here in AFF could see the risk then why can't the experts? Not hindsight but we know that is how it will all be explained away.

Unfortunately, we all seem to be following the data.

But the key health officials seem reactive (eg its over 20 now let’s lock down PoStcodes, it’s over 150 now lets lockdown Melbourne, it’s now 1:100 let’s hard lockdown the towers).

a different type of reactive is a few on AFF, arguably proactive (eg oh that’s a bit unexpected, likely to be more unexpected Numbers since the breach in hotel quarantine identified over a week ago, where could it have gone in a week of no tracking - oh all of Melbourne, oh it’s coming to school hol, better stop them going now).

edit: in summary politicians/health Officials can’t justify a Widespread lockdown without actual numberS (as opposed to people looking from outside) in case their prediction is wrong.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

Air NZ have put a temporary hold on new bookings Air NZ Temporary Hold
This effectively limits the ability of their citizens to return at least that’s the way it was interpreted when I watched on the news last night.
I am wondering if we might be heading in the same direction with various States starting to put caps on arrivals?

That would make sense, since it seems to be we are sharing our arrivals to each other.

for example, I read that a recent Air NZ flight was overbooked and they didn’t do anything until the gate. After identifying who could be offloaded (including some choosing voluntarily), those offloaded were told they are in quarantine And couldn’t go home. Why? Because there were traveller from US transiting nz to get to Australia.

im guessing a few flights would have transiting passengers to get to Oz or NZ.

 

[SydneySwan]

The opposition are finding it hard to get traction these days. They did have a win with the bus thing for those impacted but that wasn't wide spread in the population And I don't think it was even the Leader but Mulligan huffing and puffing. And I had to laugh when he said we had already put in our fair share! Not sure where he dug that from. I'm betting the hotels and restaurants are welcoming the influx.

I can't find it now but I did see a table of international arrivals and SA was at the bottom. I am sure the hotels in Adelaide will welcome the extra business.

 

[jakeseven7]

edit: in summary politicians/health Officials can’t justify a Widespread lockdown without actual numberS (as opposed to people looking from outside) in case their prediction is wrong.

Correct, as opposed to all the AFF self appointed epidemiologists who are always right