Australian Reports of the Virus Spread

[RooFlyer]

News flash. Tasmania’s First Secretary has had a presser where he announced that darts and 8 ball will be allowed in a week ( can’t rush these things).

swoon! Such freedoms we enjoy in the PDR Tasmania. I wonder when the first giant portrait of Dear Leader will appear in the public square.

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

Meanwhile I wanted to book Saffire for our wedding anniversary in November ! I think mr Gutwein is trying to out do Anastasia in border closures ☹ ☹☹

 

[Seat0B]

I dont think it was ever unsafe to transit at SYD (dont recall reading any cases of airport transmission). Are there not direct flights from ADL to CBR?

Even in "normal" times there was only ever one morning and one evening direct QF flight CBR-ADL. not sure about Virgin. The morning flight was at a very unsociable early hour, which usually meant an 0400 start to the day. Not a well served route in my experience.

 

[DC3]

I dont think it was ever unsafe to transit at SYD (dont recall reading any cases of airport transmission). Are there not direct flights from ADL to CBR?

But isn’t Canberra airport in danger of being temporarily closed to commercial flights, due to lack of demand?

 

[SydneySwan]

I wonder when the first giant portrait of Dear Leader will appear in the public square.

No doubt closely followed by the giant statue!

 

[Flying mermaid]

But isn’t Canberra airport in danger of being temporarily closed to commercial flights, due to lack of demand?

On Wednesday 106 passengers departed (capacity is 22,000). On Tuesday 39 flew in and 47 out. On Saturday 19 in and 62 out. I think the plan is to keep it open until 1October (except for Saturday) and then make a decision.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Who knows if the Victorian cases just walked out though the evidence is pretty strong that the security guards had something to do with the outbreak.

While I think that they did just walk out the door from the various rumours it would seem that it was via staff and not via "guests".

The Doherty Institute and the CHO Vic as a minimum most probably will know as the information to date has indicated that there are three strains linked to to Vic quarantine hotels. The genomic sequencing most likely will have shown if there were cases/clusters that did not pass through hotel staff.

Of the three strains, one is rumoured to have started with a night manager as being patient 0 based on some leaked emails (From memory that was via The Age.). Security guards were subsequently infected at that hotel.

Patient zero stayed safe in hotel quarantine after coming down with COVID-19

The former night manager of the Rydges hotel in Swanston Street isolated in the same hotel and kept the disease away from his own family.

www.theage.com.au

The other two strains are rumoured to have started with security guards, but I do not recall definitive info on this. Others that have been following the current inquest may have heard more.

In time the inquest will I assume reveal more information on this.

 

[RooFlyer]

On a more serious note than my previous post, evidence continues to be heard in the Victorian Hotel Quarantine inquiry, and Premier Andrews responds (Sergeant Shultz comes to mind). The first part I think speaks volumes as to how the current tragedy came about (my bolding).

A Parks Victoria ranger team leader completed a one hour online module on employee equity and diversity but received no training in infection control or personal protective equipment before starting work in hotel quarantine, an inquiry heard.

Luke Ashford began his first shift as an authorised officer on 21 May with a 10 minute handover and a draft document of procedures, he told the hotel quarantine inquiry on Friday.

He said he: “Sort of took [PPE] off my own intuition I guess... did the best I thought I could.”
...

Asked to respond to evidence heard at the inquiry on Friday that a Parks Victoria employee had completed a one hour online module on employee equity and diversity but received no training in infection control or personal protective equipment before starting work in hotel quarantine, Mr Andrews said: “I couldn’t comment on what training was provided.”
...

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has said he does not know why legal representatives acting on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services at the hotel quarantine inquiry applied to have evidence given on Thursday by a hotel quarantine nurse suppressed.

DHHS barrister Claire Harris QC withdrew the suppression application on Friday morning, after the move was opposed by lawyers acting for The Australian and other publications.

It related to an order which would have suppressed the publication of evidence given on Thursday by nurse Michael Tait, who told the inquiry he had heard a rumour that it took “a couple of days” before the body of a hotel quarantine resident who had committed suicide was found.

Under the order, the evidence would only have been able to be published with accompanying “context” provided by DHHS.

Asked whether it was appropriate for the government’s lawyers to be deciding how evidence should be treated, and why DHHS lawyers had applied to suppress the evidence, Mr Andrews said: “I’ve no idea”.

“I really can’t comment on that, because I’m not aware of it,” Mr Andrews said. “In complete certainty the first I’ve heard of that is the question you’ve just asked me, but I’m happy to follow it up.”

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

SW and W Sydney testing rates and undetected community transmission clearly keeping them up at night.

Won't pass Anna's test either to go and see family in QLD either at this rate

----

NSW Health declares six new hot spots; calls on more to get tested, as unknown cases continue to stump contact tracers

....

Live NSW COVID-19 updates: One new case of coronavirus

<p>NSW Health has put another six areas under "increased surveillance", calling on thousands of people to get tested for coronavirus.</p>

www.news.com.au

Being noted as an increased surveillance area does not mean much as the criteria for going for a test is the same, that is mild symptoms, as the rest of the city, State....

 

[RooFlyer]

I think mr Gutwein is trying to out do Anastasia in border closures ☹ ☹

Meh. The QLD Premier is a rank amateur. After all, she's letting folks from SA, at least, in and I think even some from NSW . Dear Leader here won't even allow anyone from SA, WA, NT etc in without two weeks in the slammer (home slammer for residents, you pay to subsidise our hotels if not).

So sorry to hear about Saffire. I'd love to say I'll do a stay for you, but Dear Leader's $100 towards holidaying in the Motherland won't go far there! (Like, 6% of one night's tariff).

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

On Wednesday 106 passengers departed (capacity is 22,000). On Tuesday 39 flew in and 47 out. On Saturday 19 in and 62 out. I think the plan is to keep it open until 1October (except for Saturday) and then make a decision.

So pollies and staffers have to go via.....?

 

[TheRealTMA]

Meh. The QLD Premier is a rank amateur. After all, she's letting folks from SA, at least, in and I think even some from NSW . Dear Leader here won't even allow anyone from SA, WA, NT etc in without two weeks in the slammer (home slammer for residents, you pay to subsidise our hotels if not).

So sorry to hear about Saffire. I'd love to say I'll do a stay for you, but Dear Leader's $100 towards holidaying in the Motherland won't go far there! (Like, 6% of one night's tariff).

Not to worry. I believe people from the Tasmanian DPR can also enter Qld To escape the snow. Let me know and we’ll put in a good word for you.

 

[Seat0B]

So pollies and staffers have to go via.....?

I'm sure that's the airport's plan - put the pain onto someone who could possibly choose to do something about it.

Also weird to see Qantas and Canberra Airport on the same page for once as usually they have a very love hate-hate relationship.

 

[Flying mermaid]

So pollies and staffers have to go via.....?

We were wondering that actually . Fly to Sydney and drive? I am sure it is more an attempt to get some sort of changes happening.

He is trying to get the other states to open their borders to ACT by promising to get drivers’ licences checked multiple times and only ACT residents allowed to fly (or residents of the state they are flying to). Happy to throw neighbouring communities to the wolves. Of course it doesn’t solve the issue which got us banned in the first place, of say a QLD resident flying to Canberra driving to an NSW hotspot and then flying back via Canberra claiming to have been here all the time....

EDIT - Talking of pollies Mr FM and I plan to be even more paranoid than we usually are for the next few weeks. parliament goes back and we are flooded with pollies and their staffers. Who wants to bet on them doing the right thing?

 

[RooFlyer]

Not to worry. I believe people from the Tasmanian DPR can also enter Qld To escape the snow. Let me know and we’ll put in a good word for you.

Oh, yes, we can go away anywhere. Its that we have to be locked up for 2 weeks on return that's the killer.

 

[TheRealTMA]

Oh, yes, we can go away anywhere. Its that we have to be locked up for 2 weeks on return that's the killer.

Yes. What’s your problem? No lockup here. Is it just your Socialist Paradise of Tasmania that’s the issue? Winter is coming!

 

[TheRealTMA]

SMH.com.au reports, what I alluded to earlier:

Murphy praises NSW response to COVID-19
By Dana McCauley

Federal health department secretary Brendan Murphy has praised the NSW government for its COVID-19 response, saying the state's health authorities had "effectively stamped out an outbreak of a similar size to that in Victoria".

"This virus is incredibly infectious and unfortunately the Victorian public health response was unable to control the outbreaks in the way that NSW has done," Professor Murphy told the COVID-19 Senate Committee hearing on Friday.

He said while Victoria's contact tracers had been "overwhelmed" by the rapid spread of the state's second wave, the NSW health department had a more advanced system for tracing and isolating new cases, with public health teams "in every local health district."

NSW also had a better public health system than other states, including Victoria, he said, with a "decentralised structure", better IT systems and training and "really strong, critical leadership from public health physicians."

Professor Murphy said the NSW response should serve as "the model for the rest of the country" as premiers and chief ministers grappled with the pandemic's ongoing threat.

He said while the Victorian government had done "everything they could", the virus had "got the better of them."

"The one thing that we can do to protect elderly Australians is to have not another outbreak of this magnitude," he told the hearing.

"The primary driver of the whole national response has been to stop widespread community transmission, because everywhere in the world it has disastrous consequences.

"Every state and territory needs to go back and check to see they have all of those systems and processes to make sure they can do that."

This is a crock. It’s so appalling that Murphy has been captured by the liberals and is now just sprouting government propaganda against Labor state governments. NSW had nowhere near the outbreak of Victoria, not saying they handled it overly well. He’s supposed to be presenting unbiased scientific advice rather than this drivel. I now have no faith in anything he says. What a sham.

 

[DC3]

... He’s supposed to be presenting unbiased scientific advice rather than this drivel. I now have no faith in anything he says. What a sham.

He seems to be doing a good impersonation of Scomo’s glove puppet.

 

[Pushka]

This is a crock. It’s so appalling that Murphy has been captured by the liberals and is now just sprouting government propaganda against Labor state governments. NSW had nowhere near the outbreak of Victoria, not saying they handled it overly well. He’s supposed to be presenting unbiased scientific advice rather than this drivel. I now have no faith in anything he says. What a sham.

Maybe its more a comment that NSW didnt have the secondary wave that Victoria did and when there was infiltration it was dealt with. Although I suspect it has always been bubbling around the western areas.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

...

He’s supposed to be presenting unbiased scientific advice rather than this drivel. I now have no faith in anything he says. What a sham.

The Secretary of Health is not a scientific position.