Australian Reports of the Virus Spread

[Lynda2475]

A second escapee from Sydney hotel this week - Queensland women broke out and tried to board an international flight after only 4 days of Quarantine. Stopped by border force. $1000 fine. I woudl have thought the penalty should be more severe, so selfish to put teh community at risk - stay in your 4 stars hotel and do the right thing.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Apartment towers testing now complete. 158 cases.


All residents of one locked-down public housing tower in Melbourne's inner-city will be required to isolate for a further nine days, with the remaining eight towers to return to the same level of restrictions as the rest of Melbourne by the end of Thursday.

During the five-day, police-enforced lockdown in the nine towers in North Melbourne and Flemington that began on Saturday afternoon, 2515 public housing residents were tested for coronavirus and 158 cases were identified, Premier Daniel Andrews announced on Thursday afternoon.

One tower, 33 Alfred Street in North Melbourne, had 53 confirmed cases - about 11 per cent of all residents in that tower. every tenant will be classed as close contacts who must isolate for a total of 14 days, until next Saturday.

Six towers will reopen from 11.59pm on Thursday, while in two towers - 9 Pampas Street and 159 Melrose Street - there were no cases, meaning they will reopen from 5pm.


Mr Andrews said a specialised coronavirus management plan would be introduced for all nine towers and flagged that there would likely be more new cases in the coming days.

"Acknowledging this is in some respects akin to an aged care facility, there will be continued support and continued protection for those residents, given their age and for many of them their health status makes them especially vulnerable," the Premier said.

etc

One public housing tower to remain in lockdown, restrictions to ease on others

All residents of one locked-down public housing tower in Melbourne will be required to isolate for a further nine days, with those who test positive to be offered hotel accommodation.

www.theage.com.au

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

Apartment towers testing now complete. 158 cases.


All residents of one locked-down public housing tower in Melbourne's inner-city will be required to isolate for a further nine days, with the remaining eight towers to return to the same level of restrictions as the rest of Melbourne by the end of Thursday.

One public housing tower to remain in lockdown, restrictions to ease on others

All residents of one locked-down public housing tower in Melbourne will be required to isolate for a further nine days, with those who test positive to be offered hotel accommodation.

www.theage.com.au

Its good that it’s seemingly resolved.

85% tested, those missed will be reoffered testing.

It was a bit confusing press conference and I was only able to watch part of it.

As I understand it..

1. two blocks released immediately and treated exactly as the rest of Melbourne.
2. six blocks released at midnight, but positives will be immediately offered temporary quarantine accomodation for the balance of the 14 days with the aim for them to be voluntarily taken up by midday tomorrow
3. one block with significant number of positives basically under quarantine for the balance of the 14 days with supervised exercise time.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Its good that it’s seemingly resolved.

Yes. Though given high risk nature of some of the residents, bad news may still occur.

And after my recent negative criticisms of the overall handling of the other recent hotspots it is good to see this one done both well (well as well as you can in such a complex situation) and so speedily. So pat on the back for this one.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Of great concern now is the number of healthworkers and staff at aged care facilities who are testing positive. Fortunately the residents of aged care are not yet testing positive.

Salient points from today's update from the Vic Department of Health & Human Services

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

• 18 cases relating to the North Melbourne and Flemington public housing towers, with the total now 111. Testing concluded at the estates on Wednesday night, and further lab results are expected later today and are not included in this number.
• 6 new cases linked to the Al-Taqwa College outbreak, with the total now 113.
• One new case at the Catch.com Distribution Centre in Truganina taking the total number of cases for four. Further contact tracing is under way.
• One case linked to the Collins Street Hugo Boss outbreak – a household contact – taking the total to 8.

Other cases include:

• 2 healthcare workers have tested positive at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. Contact tracing is under way and close contacts will be required to quarantine for 14 days.
• 2 healthcare workers at Sunshine Hospital emergency department have tested positive. Contact tracing is under way and close contacts will be required to quarantine for 14 days.
• 1 further case in a staff member has been linked to the Northern Hospital in Epping, with the total now 11, made up of 9 staff and 2 household contacts.
• Positive cases have been linked to aged care facilities, these facilities are in lockdown and cleaning, contact tracing and appropriate testing is underway.
  • Cases in 2 staff members who worked at Menarock Life Aged Care in Essendon.
  • A staff member who attended BaptCare The Orchards Community in Doncaster while infectious.
  • A staff member who worked at Benetas St George’s in Altona Meadows while infectious.
  • A staff member who worked at BlueCross Ivanhoe while infectious.
  • A staff member who worked at Aurrum Aged Care facility in Healesville. The staff member was not infectious at the time.
  • A staff member who worked at Holmwood Aged Care facility in Healesville. The staff member was not infectious at the time.

PS: I should add that it is likely that most if not all of the healthcare and aged care staff were infected in the community (including at home), and not at their workplaces.

 

[jase05]

Just the tone and words from the PM sounds like Victoria are possibly in for a bit of a spike today. There was some thought that around 50 overflow cases from yesterday need to be added so every chance that 200+ is on the cards.

 

[Beano]

There goes my Trans Tasman trip to Melbourne for the foreseeable future. Definitely suffering travel withdrawal symptoms and going stir crazy here in NZ.

PS. WOW, we seem to have a spell checker now!!

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Just the tone and words from the PM sounds like Victoria are possibly in for a bit of a spike today. There was some thought that around 50 overflow cases from yesterday need to be added so every chance that 200+ is on the cards.

There are always cases from the day prior as the numbers are not till midnight. Well as long as positive results come in after the daily cut off time, which sadly at present will be every day as they are churning through over 20K tests per day and I doubt the labs will only be working 9-5.

So for example yesterdays figures I think had 111 for apartment towers. So the additional 47 cases announced last night for the towers will be part of today's figures. But this is normal.

Though prioritising all the apartment towers tests would have pushed through more positive earlier due the higher positive rate within this cohort.

 

[jase05]

There are always cases from the day prior as the numbers are not till midnight. Well as long as positive results come in after the daily cut off time, which sadly at present will be every day as they are churning through over 20K tests per day and I doubt the labs will only be working 9-5.

So for example yesterdays figures I think had 111 for apartment towers. So the additional 47 cases announced last night for the towers will be part of today's figures. But this is normal.

Though prioritising all the apartment towers tests would have pushed through more positive earlier due the higher positive rate within this cohort.

There is some chatter around that today is 288.

 

[jase05]

288 cases confirmed for Victoria

 

[lovetravellingoz]

288 cases confirmed for Victoria

Things are going to be bad for at least a fortnight as the Vic Gov was way to slow bringing back really serious control measures.

With it clearly known that family spread was a key driver, reducing visitors to the home to only 5 initially was a joke. So adequate control measures have only really started this week.

Post automatically merged: Jul 10, 2020

288 cases confirmed for Victoria

It seems to be saying 299.

11 reclassified ...

Better data not yet available.

 

[N860CR]

It’s becoming a bit irrelevant now anyway. The testing procedure has changed so much that they’re picking up loads of asymptomatic cases that wouldn’t have registered during the March/April testing rounds. If anything, it proves the virus has already spread far more than perhaps the powers that be were prepared to tell the public.

What will be telling now is the rate of hospital admission over the coming weeks. That’s really what they should be focusing on.

 

[get me outta here]

Are we taking bets on whether Qld will now see infectees (do you like that word?), crossing the border?

 

[jakeseven7]

Things are going to be bad for at least a fortnight as the Vic Gov was way to slow bringing back really serious control measures.

With it clearly known that family spread was a key driver, reducing visitors to the home to only 5 initially was a joke. So adequate control measures have only really started this week.

I think we all get your criticism, you've made that very clear and repeatedly... Maybe it is time just to tone it back a little and be a little more empathetic and constructive in your posts? Its a difficult time for people living in Victorian and for those with families there as you know too well with your situation..... Just a thought. Not going to say anything more than that.

---

On the recent announcement - will be very interesting to see how they educate people on proper use of masks.... Because what I see people in public do walking around in Brisbane wearing them completely negates the effectiveness of them, infact probably does the wearer more harm than good!

 

[lovetravellingoz]

288 new #COVID19Aus cases in

Victoria (+299 total)

• 26 linked to known outbreaks
• 262 under investigation
• 11 reclassified

 

[Pushka]

And a genome link of school with the Quarantine issue.

On the recent announcement - will be very interesting to see how they educate people on proper use of masks.... Because what I see people in public do walking around in Brisbane wearing them completely negates the effectiveness of them, infact probably does the wearer more harm than good!

The sooner they start educating people the better. Another thing I see is people fiddling with them, even wearing them inside out. When that's pointed out to them they take it off and put it on the correct way. Ummm, pointless

 

[SydneySwan]

Are we taking bets on whether Qld will now see infectees (do you like that word?), crossing the border?

The NSW - QLD border is open for now but I would guess that if any community transmission starts popping up in NSW, even just 1 or 2 cases especially if it is in Sydney, then I would expect AP to lower the boom gates very quickly.

 

[Lynda2475]

I would guess that if any community transmission starts popping up in NSW, even just 1 or 2 cases especially if it is in Sydney, then I would expect AP to lower the boom gates very quickly.

We have been told if in NSW we get 100 community cases in 14 days we go into lockdown - I hope that doenst happen.

Given the high number of Victorians holidaying in Byron over the last 2 weeks, id guess more likely an outbreak there will go over the border into Qld first beforfe anyone from Sydney.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

We have been told if in NSW we get 100 community cases in 14 days we go into lockdown - I hope that doenst happen.

Given the high number of Victorians holidaying in Byron over the last 2 weeks, id guess more likely an outbreak there will go over the border into Qld first beforfe anyone from Sydney.

Who suggested that?

Yesterday upthread I quoted news.com.au quoting a professor saying if NSW got to 100 over a 14 day period it could be too late to avoid being like Melbourne.

Didn’t heard that it was official NSW policy/red alert

 

[Lynda2475]

I heard someone say it in an interview ysterday, thought it was John Barilaro but i was multi-tasking not watching the screen. If i have it wrong I apologise.

Probably wise though to publish a threshold so people do more to avoid hiiting it.

The number of Victorians in ICU has escalated quickly.