Australian Reports of the Virus Spread

[HappyFlyerFamily]

Two from a Melbourne hotspot who arrived on Thursday plus a close contact. They visited Fyshwick markets and Belconnen Mall - so now we wait and see .....

I take your word for it, but perhaps a rhetorical question: how can you be from the same household but two is from a hotspot (and impliedly one is not)....?

im guessing my initial report off ABC I guess is inaccurate.

 

[Flying mermaid]

I wish DrRon was right, but I think p—and—t is right because I’m not aware of any declarations imposing a requirement on the airline or the airport (or trains/buses or stations/stops/terminals).

Maybe declarations need to be made in relation to interstate travel, not just international travel.



edit: I’ve had a look to see if I could find it, but if someone finds the appropriate one, it would be good to get a link.

This is just a news article, but Jetstar seems to be taking on the role

Airport breach allows Melbourne passengers into Sydney without being screened

A plane full of passengers on a Jetstar flight from Melbourne to Sydney disembark without being screened by NSW Health officials or police, in a major breach of the state's coronavirus laws.

www.abc.net.au

 

[Flying mermaid]

I take your word for it, but perhaps a rhetorical question: how can you be from the same household but two is from a hotspot (and impliedly one is not)....?

im guessing my initial report off ABC I guess is inaccurate.

easy if you are returning home to stay with family..... For obvious reasons twenty somethings leave Canberra to live in the big smoke. My nephew left Canberra in May to live in Melbourne. Easy to see a scenario where he returns with a partner and stays with Mum and Dad.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

The AFL players have not been in a genuine iso bubble unlike say the Auckland Warriors (in a hotel away from everyone but the team) because they have been living with their families and have kids who have been going to schools in hot spots.

They are tested at least one a week, so if any of them are positive, or become positive, then you will soon know about it. Whereas if that 1000 odd people were instead all sacked as you prefer and catch Covid 19 it may take some time before it is infected, and indeed it is actually much more likely for them to spread Covid19 if they are no longer employed as AFL players, trainers, coaches, physios etc. Is that not actually a greater risk?

There must be very few Australians who are tested weekly. Even less where everyone of their close work colleagues is also tested weekly. Very soon all will have been in zones with low or no CV19 cases. Despite this they will still be tested weekly.

Kid to adult transmission is very rare. Moreo if they are very young, and most AFL players are not old enough to have teenagers. AFL teams admin support is 100% separated from the football department, even before this week. My own club took that to extremes with all Admin located 25km away from the Football Department.

I personally would be more about people who are not being tested, or may be get tested once and then may catch it later.

Are the players really a significant risk of spreading Covid19? Foxtel, the media and others have all stood down vast numbers of staff throughout Australia. One of my daughters who was at Foxtel and hundreds of her workmates from around Australia were retrenched last month. Many many more were retrenched earlier on. Without the revenue that the AFL/NRL/A-league/Netball/Basketball generate many many more would be stood down.

There are definite non-Covid19 health risks to the unemployed. Not all have the advantage that my daughter has in parents that can accommodate her (Though she is a proactive young lady who has already gained another position with Suncorp).

So we need to balance risk. I fully understand and support ban normal Victorians from travelling at present . But to stop AFL players from all states from playing given how they are managed and tested at present would in my opinion cause a lot of heath problems, cause huge economic damage and most likely make little or do difference in preventing the spread of Covid 19. Indeed if that 1000 odd AFL staff were put back into the general populace where they will not be tested frequently and so the risk of them catching and spreading Covid 19 would probably be higher.

AFL/NRL/A-league/Netball/Basketball being played is of benefit to many both directly and indirectly. Is there really enough of a significant Covid19 risk that justifies not having those benefits?

 

[lovetravellingoz]

PS: Every state accepts some risk.

International sea and air freight arrive and depart every day. WA crayfish are sent off to Covid19 positive countries. While some are essential items, much of it is non-essential item. Trucks cross all borders each way every day (Well with Tassie it is via the ferry). So the position of having no risk of exposure to CV19 is not practised.

Those truck drivers have partners, kids etc. If you are going to worry about AFL players who are tested weekly and monitored then you probably should demand that all freight of non-essential items be stopped as the testing and monitoring of those involved is not as rigid.

 

[jakeseven7]

There are literally hundreds of trucks crossing the border every single day, I think we are going to have to accept there will be some leakage.

Luckily we are still operating on a suppression strategy, not elimination.

 

[get me outta here]

It was 3 people from MEL apparently, anything hot off the press should probably not been taken literally . Anyhoo, as a result, CBR will not ease restrictions as from Friday after all.

I take your word for it, but perhaps a rhetorical question: how can you be from the same household but two is from a hotspot (and impliedly one is not)....?

im guessing my initial report off ABC I guess is inaccurate.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Salient points from today's daily update by the Victorian Department of Health & Human Services.

• 456 cases may indicate community transmission
• 860 cases are currently active in Victoria
• 41 cases of coronavirus are in hospital, including 7 in intensive care
• 2,058 people have recovered from the virus
• Of the total cases, 2,575 cases are from metropolitan Melbourne, while 263 are from regional Victoria
• Total cases include 1,545 are men and 1,372 are women
• More than 1,008,000 tests have been processed to date

Of yesterday’s new cases which have already been linked to outbreaks, the breakdown is:

• 7 new cases linked to the Al-Taqwa College outbreak, with the total now 102.
• 2 cases relating to the North Melbourne and Flemington public housing towers, with the total now 75.
• 1 case linked to the Stamford Plaza outbreak, which now totals 43.
• 1 new case at the PM Fresh facility in Broadmeadows, taking the total at the site to 2. Contact tracing is under way and appropriate testing of staff will be undertaken.

Other cases include:

• 4 patients and a staff member who have tested positive at Brunswick Private Hospital. Contact tracing is under way. The outbreak squad will visit today and the hospital is closed to new admissions.
• 3 additional cases have been linked to the Woolworths Customer Fulfilment Centre in Footscray, taking the total to 4. 3 are staff members and 1 is a household contact of a staff member. Contact tracing is continuing.
• 5 positive cases have been linked to aged care services, where cleaning, contact tracing and appropriate testing is under way.

This includes:

1. a staff member who was infectious while at the Doutta Galla, Lynch’s Bridge site in Kensington on 2 and 3 July
2. a resident who tested positive at the Glendale Aged Care facility in Werribee
3. a staff member who worked at the Uniting AgeWell facility in Preston
4. a staff member at BaptCare Karana in Kew who tested positive but did not work while infectious
5. a positive case who provides aged care services to clients in their homes through Mercy Health.

PS: Cases are mainly in the northern suburbs still. But there are certainly more randomised spread now.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

easy if you are returning home to stay with family..... For obvious reasons twenty somethings leave Canberra to live in the big smoke. My nephew left Canberra in May to live in Melbourne. Easy to see a scenario where he returns with a partner and stays with Mum and Dad.

It was 3 people from MEL apparently, anything hot off the press should probably not been taken literally . Anyhoo, as a result, CBR will not ease restrictions as from Friday after all.

Flying mermaid seemed a reasonable explanation, but if it’s what get me outta here says then I’m more confused, unless the two in a hotspot moved in/back to be part of the third person’s hoUse hold in Victoria (or vice versa).

anyway, small matter.....

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

Salient points from today's daily update by the Victorian Department of Health & Human Services.

• 456 cases may indicate community transmission
• 860 cases are currently active in Victoria
• 41 cases of coronavirus are in hospital, including 7 in intensive care
• 2,058 people have recovered from the virus
• Of the total cases, 2,575 cases are from metropolitan Melbourne, while 263 are from regional Victoria
• Total cases include 1,545 are men and 1,372 are women
• More than 1,008,000 tests have been processed to date

Of yesterday’s new cases which have already been linked to outbreaks, the breakdown is:

• 7 new cases linked to the Al-Taqwa College outbreak, with the total now 102.
• 2 cases relating to the North Melbourne and Flemington public housing towers, with the total now 75.
• 1 case linked to the Stamford Plaza outbreak, which now totals 43.
• 1 new case at the PM Fresh facility in Broadmeadows, taking the total at the site to 2. Contact tracing is under way and appropriate testing of staff will be undertaken.

Other cases include:

• 4 patients and a staff member who have tested positive at Brunswick Private Hospital. Contact tracing is under way. The outbreak squad will visit today and the hospital is closed to new admissions.
• 3 additional cases have been linked to the Woolworths Customer Fulfilment Centre in Footscray, taking the total to 4. 3 are staff members and 1 is a household contact of a staff member. Contact tracing is continuing.
• 5 positive cases have been linked to aged care services, where cleaning, contact tracing and appropriate testing is under way. This includes:

1. a staff member who was infectious while at the Doutta Galla, Lynch’s Bridge site in Kensington on 2 and 3 July
2. a resident who tested positive at the Glendale Aged Care facility in Werribee
3. a staff member who worked at the Uniting AgeWell facility in Preston
4. a staff member at BaptCare Karana in Kew who tested positive but did not work while infectious
5. a positive case who provides aged care services to clients in their homes through Mercy Health.

PS: Cases are mainly in the northern suburbs still. But there are certainly more randomised spread now.

Informative.

I get the feeling that there will be coincidences of people being from the same location/close contact but actually getting it from different sources. Not suggesting we do genomic testing on everything to double check but it’s the feeling I get. Hopefully only just a low coincidence %.

 

[tgh]

leads to… how we cope nationally if Vic ends up with a very heavy community transmitted caseload.
It's one thing to close the borders for 6 weeks.. but 6 months.. or a year…how will that work ?

 

[jakeseven7]

leads to… how we cope nationally if Vic ends up with a very heavy community transmitted caseload.
It's one thing to close the borders for 6 weeks.. but 6 months.. or a year…how will that work ?

If it gets to that point, NSW and the ACT will have it as well so will be a bigger discussion, but anyway whats the point in dealing with hypothetical like this really

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Not suggesting we do genomic testing on everything to double check but it’s the feeling I get.

All samples in Vic get genomically sequenced.

A week back they had completed this on about 80% of all cases. There is a 2/3 week delay or at least there was. I would expect that the huge surge in daily testing will push this back though.

This helps to link clusters and for example has already indicated that the Hotel Quarantine cases were part of what fuelled the outbreak in the northern suburbs.


A dedicated SARS-CoV-2 multidisciplinary genomic response team from the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory (VIDRL) and the Microbiological Diagnostic Unit Public Health Laboratory (MDU-PHL) at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity (Doherty Institute), and the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) was formed to link epidemiological and genomic data of Victoria’s COVID-19 cases and assess the impact of social restrictions.

The Institute is a world leader in many aspects of Covid 19.

ie

• The new saliva test.
• They were the first to grow (and then share worldwide) the virus in a cell culture outside of China
• Melbourne scientists first to grow and share novel coronavirus

 

[Lynda2475]

it is actually much more likely for them to spread Covid19 if they are no longer employed as AFL players, trainers, coaches, physios etc. Is that not actually a greater risk?

Ii they are at home I would think the risk would lower, than flying all over the country. However, if they persist in playing wouldnt it have made more sense to send all teams to the one city (i.e. Perth or Adelaide or Brisbane) and have them play all games without spectators or limited spectators over needing them to travel to different cities? I still thinks contact sports set a very bad example, when physical distancing is the best weapon we have against Covid-19.

I will never understand the appeal of footy or see how anyone could justify the salaries of some of the player so will bow out of this line of conversation from here.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

leads to… how we cope nationally if Vic ends up with a very heavy community transmitted caseload.
It's one thing to close the borders for 6 weeks.. but 6 months.. or a year…how will that work ?

Lockdowns have been shown to work.

This time round lockdown measures have been tweaked (several loopholes have been closed) and also testing is now being done at a sustained volumes never done in Australia before.

333,413 tests in only 15 days. That is 33% of all tests done in Victoria to date. There has been 2,855,498 tests done in Australia to date. So that is about 12 % of total tests,.

The hotel quaratine security guard source that was fuelling much of the outbreak has now been turn off.

So let's wait 2/3 weeks and see what the situation is. In particular as visits to family homes being reduced to zero only starts tonight. I see this as a particularly crucial control measure .as people do not physically distance at home

​

 

[dajop]

It is going to be very interesting in 10-14 days.

I've been keeping an eye on the traffic on the road that passes our front door, when I've been doing my daily walks, in the front garden etc. (FWIW the road is a quite famous coastal route, to the south west of Melbourne, originally built during the Great Depression, and is well traversed by tourists).

Some anecdotal figures:
1) During the height of the first lockdown, early April, typically 30-35 vehicles every ten minutes. (30-40% obviously commercial vehicles)
2) At Easter, about 70, but retreated after Easter to back to 35-40.
3) After lockdown easing ~ 70 on weekdays, and ~100 on weekends
4) Midweek last week (school holidays) about 80-90.
5) Today, last day before Melbourne lockdown - 160 (<10% commercial) traffic is typical of what we experience during early January, the peak time of the year.

People are certainly on the move today.

 

[Lynda2475]

The hotel quaratine security guard source that was fuelling much of the outbreak has now been turn off.

Lets hope so, in an interview today Andrews wouldnt confirm that contracts with the private security firms had been terminated. Vic still not using ADF to enforce procedures as has been sucessful in NSW and elsewhere. I really dont understand why Vic wouldnt accept ADF help offered. Miltitary personal are used to following orders and procedures, and as are paid their usual salary have no incetive to cut corners unlike the private security firms who were aiming to maximise profits by having phantom staff and untrained staff on duty.

 

[Gremlin]

Flying mermaid seemed a reasonable explanation, but if it’s what get me outta here says then I’m more confused, unless the two in a hotspot moved in/back to be part of the third person’s hoUse hold in Victoria (or vice versa).

anyway, small matter.....

Radio story I heard was that two members of the Canberra household had been in Melbourne and returned on 2 Jul. Both tested positive along with a third member of the household.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Ii they are at home I would think the risk would lower, than flying all over the country. However, if they persist in playing wouldnt it have made more sense to send all teams to the one city (i.e. Perth or Adelaide or Brisbane) and have them play all games without spectators or limited spectators over needing them to travel to different cities? I still thinks contact sports set a very bad example, when physical distancing is the best weapon we have against Covid-19.

Personally I am much more fearful of the lack of physical distancing in private homes, than I am of AFL players on the football field.

I will never understand the appeal of footy or see how anyone could justify the salaries of some of the player so will bow out of this line of conversation from here.

But that is how free enterprise works. From actors, to rock stars or these days even those that make money by merely being famous. However it is not really relevant to reducing Covid 19.

I find horse racing dead boring, but that is not a reason for it to not exist.

 

[Flying mermaid]

It was 3 people from MEL apparently, anything hot off the press should probably not been taken literally . Anyhoo, as a result, CBR will not ease restrictions as from Friday after all.

Not what Canberra Times said, but who knows with Journalists