Australian Reports of the Virus Spread

[jakeseven7]

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Yesterday my heart sank a bit. Well a lot actually

After having my business basically dormant since March I was all set to relaunch nationally with a marketing campaign only to wake and hear the SA news and to have to pull the pin on it.

This morning's one case is much better news and so hopefully next week I can get to relaunch. But it may well take a month and if so that is not good as with the Xmas period coming that really then means 2 to 3 months.

Post automatically merged: Nov 17, 2020

View attachment 233732

Good to see test numbers back up with yesterday being much lower. I suspect the SA news may have played a part.

 

[Pushka]

Yesterday my heart sank a bit. Well a lot actually

After having my business basically dormant since March I was all set to relaunch nationally with a marketing campaign only to wake and hear the SA news and to have to pull the pin on it.

This morning's one case is much better news and so hopefully next week I can get to relaunch. But it may well take a month and if so that is not good as with the Xmas period coming that really then means 2 to 3 months.

Post automatically merged: Nov 17, 2020

Good to see test numbers back up with yesterday being much lower. I suspect the SA news may have played a part.

Best wishes. We had new business appointments lined up over the last couple of weeks in Adelaide to start 2021 all fresh with a new business model. Just waiting for all the cancellations now. Have hope. It will get better.

Maybe wishful thinking but I got the sense that once the Health got on to the family and close contacts, that they felt they might just be able to get things sorted quickly. But they did seem to travel quite substantially and there was the Hindu festival on the weekend where close contacts went to. I thought that it was for only 2 weeks was a positive sign, or maybe they just didn't dare try for four weeks at the get go.

Another aside, I thought that Prof Spurrier said that there was no mandatory testing of any quarantine workers throughout Australia. Maybe others can confirm? They have just implemented a testing regime as of this week.

 

[RAM]

yeah I posted in another thread that testing takes way too long. When I went for my test at a major hospital there were three stations you had to pass through. At each station was a full ID check (name, date of birth, address), then you finally tale the test. The staff exhibited no sense of urgency either - which I guess it's hard to blame them given they probably do this day in, day out.

I dunno why they can't just swipe the medicare card, give you the test kit, and off you go.

Sounds like the Japanese way of doing things! Slow as!

Now that you may have some 'extra' spare time - it is worthwhile bingeing on the 'Yes, Minister' series, with a helping of "Utopia" on the side. Finally read the ICAC report into 'Operation Spicer' - then you'll understand everything.

Starting with Japan, that often used to tout its supremacy with its very low employment levels. 'Jobs for life' but at a huge cost. In most countries if you buy 1,000 shares you used to get sent a certificate that showed you owned 1,000 shares. In Japan you got sent 1,000 single share certificates! That kept many people employed.

As a fund manager buys say 300,000 shares in NTT (say), what happened? Well, a large truck backed up to something that looks a lot like a Coles or Woolworths distribution centre - dozens of loading docks & roller doors. However this was one of dozens of 'custodian' companies. Inside the truck would be 600 brown boxes that look a lot like shoeboxes. Each box is supposed to contain 500 shares.

Simple you think, they'll be unloaded and then fed through a counting machine. WRONG.

There is one man standing outside every door. No chairs. He has a very important job that no woman could perform. He opens the door & has one other task.

Inside the facility are over 100 trestle tables with two men (women can't possibly do this job) seated at opposite ends and around 50 men walking around or gathered together talking. The 'door man' unloads the truck carrying two boxes off it at a time. No, not the truck driver, he does not get out of the cab. The man, led by one of the 'standing' carries the two boxes to one of the tables, then returns. He does this another 299 times. No trolley, just two boxes at a time. He does not hurry.

After the first two boxes all the other boxes are very neatly stacked in a clear area near each trestle table respectively. After the 299 trips there is a neat square pile about 10 boxes by 20 (from memory).

Now the hard work begins. Verification. Table man A has a box opened by one of the 'standing' men. He carefully takes out all the certificates and makes 5 or 6 piles (I was appalled - not everyone making 5 piles, how radical). He then starts counting them, 1,2,3,4,5 until he gets to 50 then he places them in a new pile. He loses count much more than I would expect. After piling them up crisscrossed he finishes. If he has exactly 10 piles of 50 counted then he carefully puts them back in the box with a smile after he has written down his count. If not he carefully puts them back in the box with a frown after he has written down his count. He indicates he needs a standing man (raises his hand like at school and waits). A standing man walks across, nothing is said, he puts the counting slip on his clipboard & takes the box to the far end of the table where the other man repeats this process.

Once finished if the two counts do not match he puts the box in the middle of the floor pile to ensure no collusion among the counters!

If we sold 300,000 shares - then our custodian does the same before the trucks take the shares to the buyers custodian.

There was not one woman employed out of around 200 or so workers. This was Japan in the late 1990s. There was not one computer in the facility, Nomura could not understand why anybody wanted to see their custodian's premises.

Not what you expected? Never assume.

________________________________​

Back to present day Australia - bureaucracies are self-propagating. Front line workers do what is required of them & many bureaucrats do what ever it takes to maintain their power in their own silo.

Imagine how advanced NSW's contact tracing system is after 8 months, getting mobile phone location data, people's spending location records to verify what they reveal. W R O N G.

That was the one of the forthcoming topics for the National Cabinet - I kid you not. The review was released last Friday.

Australia to track coronavirus encounters with payment card records

Plan calls to link government data across jurisdictions, even sharing airline records to track outbreaks and people who may be at risk of infection

www.theregister.com

“The Commonwealth should lead the development of arrangements between states and territories and payment card providers so that contact tracers from the states and territories will be able to request contact details of persons who have made a transaction at a hotspot venue, noting that privacy rules will apply and in some jurisdictions legislative change may be required.”

The review also calls for Australia’s different jurisdictions to continue operating their own contact tracing systems, but for information-sharing to be improved.

Information is conveyed through phone calls or emails, a practice that would not withstand high case numbers.

Never assume!

 

[blackcat20]

Also glad to see test numbers back up, clearly lower over the weekend.

 

[jase05]

I believe there was a festival over the weekend,

Yes, big Indian Diwali festival on the weekend

 

[Pushka]

The Nursing Home where two staff tested positive yesterday have had negative results for residents so far. They will be rested tomorrow. Also the three children now reported to be positive were considered positive yesterday (so already included) but which actually had negative PCR tests. But they are being treated as positive in "an abundance of caution". Many of the interstate news reports (looking at you news.com.au) are reporting incorrect numbers today stating the cluster is growing by three etc, and which as at current statistics, is not correct. As of yesterday the two people in RAH were put into hospital because of their age (80's) and not because of current symptoms. It was one of these people that sparked news of the initial outbreak and the hospital she first attended and later tested positive, had actually discharged her! Oops. Still I guess that stopped further spread in the hospital that clearly wasn't up to scratch.

 

[kyle]

Operation S

Now that you may have some 'extra' spare time - it is worthwhile bingeing on the 'Yes, Minister' series, with a helping of "Utopia" on the side. Finally read the ICAC report into 'Operation Spicer' - then you'll understand everything.

Starting with Japan, that often used to tout its supremacy with its very low employment levels. 'Jobs for life' but at a huge cost. In most countries if you buy 1,000 shares you used to get sent a certificate that showed you owned 1,000 shares. In Japan you got sent 1,000 single share certificates! That kept many people employed.

As a fund manager buys say 300,000 shares in NTT (say), what happened? Well, a large truck backed up to something that looks a lot like a Coles or Woolworths distribution centre - dozens of loading docks & roller doors. However this was one of dozens of 'custodian' companies. Inside the truck would be 600 brown boxes that look a lot like shoeboxes. Each box is supposed to contain 500 shares.

Simple you think, they'll be unloaded and then fed through a counting machine. WRONG.

There is one man standing outside every door. No chairs. He has a very important job that no woman could perform. He opens the door & has one other task.

Inside the facility are over 100 trestle tables with two men (women can't possibly do this job) seated at opposite ends and around 50 men walking around or gathered together talking. The 'door man' unloads the truck carrying two boxes off it at a time. No, not the truck driver, he does not get out of the cab. The man, led by one of the 'standing' carries the two boxes to one of the tables, then returns. He does this another 299 times. No trolley, just two boxes at a time. He does not hurry.

After the first two boxes all the other boxes are very neatly stacked in a clear area near each trestle table respectively. After the 299 trips there is a neat square pile about 10 boxes by 20 (from memory).

Now the hard work begins. Verification. Table man A has a box opened by one of the 'standing' men. He carefully takes out all the certificates and makes 5 or 6 piles (I was appalled - not everyone making 5 piles, how radical). He then starts counting them, 1,2,3,4,5 until he gets to 50 then he places them in a new pile. He loses count much more than I would expect. After piling them up crisscrossed he finishes. If he has exactly 10 piles of 50 counted then he carefully puts them back in the box with a smile after he has written down his count. If not he carefully puts them back in the box with a frown after he has written down his count. He indicates he needs a standing man (raises his hand like at school and waits). A standing man walks across, nothing is said, he puts the counting slip on his clipboard & takes the box to the far end of the table where the other man repeats this process.

Once finished if the two counts do not match he puts the box in the middle of the floor pile to ensure no collusion among the counters!

If we sold 300,000 shares - then our custodian does the same before the trucks take the shares to the buyers custodian.

There was not one woman employed out of around 200 or so workers. This was Japan in the late 1990s. There was not one computer in the facility, Nomura could not understand why anybody wanted to see their custodian's premises.

Not what you expected? Never assume.

________________________________​

Back to present day Australia - bureaucracies are self-propagating. Front line workers do what is required of them & many bureaucrats do what ever it takes to maintain their power in their own silo.

Imagine how advanced NSW's contact tracing system is after 8 months, getting mobile phone location data, people's spending location records to verify what they reveal. W R O N G.

That was the one of the forthcoming topics for the National Cabinet - I kid you not. The review was released last Friday.

Australia to track coronavirus encounters with payment card records

Plan calls to link government data across jurisdictions, even sharing airline records to track outbreaks and people who may be at risk of infection

www.theregister.com

“The Commonwealth should lead the development of arrangements between states and territories and payment card providers so that contact tracers from the states and territories will be able to request contact details of persons who have made a transaction at a hotspot venue, noting that privacy rules will apply and in some jurisdictions legislative change may be required.”

The review also calls for Australia’s different jurisdictions to continue operating their own contact tracing systems, but for information-sharing to be improved.

Information is conveyed through phone calls or emails, a practice that would not withstand high case numbers.

Never assume!

That story just made my day! I know they love paper, but not to that extent!

 

[jakeseven7]

Good to see test numbers back up with yesterday being much lower. I suspect the SA news may have played a part.

And these test results (and yesterdays) included tests from the testing blitz in the last known hotspots in VIC.... they must be happy that they haven’t found anything yet...

 

[jase05]

Mr Marshall said SA Health believed a cleaner became infected from a hard surface and not directly from contact with anyone in isolation.

"The early investigation shows that it was transferred from the cleaner to the security officers."

 

[kyle]

Mr Marshall said SA Health believed a cleaner became infected from a hard surface and not directly from contact with anyone in isolation.

"The early investigation shows that it was transferred from the cleaner to the security officers."

Does that mean the cleaner touched his/her face/eyes without washing his/her hands first?

 

[blackcat20]

Yes, big Indian Diwali festival on the weekend

Big crowds gathered in our local park area, no masks, no social distancing

 

[jakeseven7]

Only one case in SA today :


Reports of only one new case in SA, a close contact of the family cluster.
@SkyNewsAust

Really looking forward to the Feds and News Corp descending on Adelaide and grilling their hotel quarantine procedures, private security arrangements etc etc....

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Back to present day Australia - bureaucracies are self-propagating. Front line workers do what is required of them & many bureaucrats do what ever it takes to maintain their power in their own silo.

I would like to see evidence that this alleged behaviour is widespread. Most people want to come in to work, do thier job, go home. 'Building and maintaining power' takes an awful lot of effort.

Imagine how advanced NSW's contact tracing system is after 8 months, getting mobile phone location data, people's spending location records to verify what they reveal. W R O N G.

Pandemic or not, there's a lot of work that needs to happen, both practical and legal. IT systems rarely speak to each other for a start... so getting a file of data from telco doesn't mean other systems can just read that file and start analysing data. I wish it was that simple! You might build a link to read one telco's data... but it doesn't mean you'll be able to read data from a different telco using the same software..

 

[Lynda2475]

With SA now refusing international arrivals and Vic offering to help, maybe Vic should start accepting international flights again.

I feel sorry for anyone who was mean to fly home via Adelaide this week who just had their trip cancelled and goes back to back of the queue for a seat.

 

[Pushka]

Really looking forward to the Feds and News Corp descending on Adelaide and grilling their hotel quarantine procedures, private security arrangements etc etc....

I believe they were audited just a couple of weeks ago by the relevant Federal Agency and were rated as Gold standard.

Post automatically merged: Nov 17, 2020

With SA now refusing international arrivals and Vic offering to help, maybe Vic should start accepting international flights again.

I feel sorry for anyone who was mean to fly home via Adelaide this week who just had their trip cancelled and goes back to back of the queue for a seat.

Two flights were due yesterday (QR and SQ) and both cancelled immediately. Awful for those impacted.

 

[jakeseven7]

Big crowds gathered in our local park area, no masks, no social distancing

Did you call the police assistance number?
I would have, I've reported loads of businesses, groups of people etc before the restrictions got so slack up here!

 

[blackcat20]

Did you call the police assistance number?
I would have, I've reported loads of businesses, groups of people etc before the restrictions got so slack up here!

I didnt see them, saw photos posted on the local crime page. Most people responded to say "good on them" and "leave them alone"

 

[Flying mermaid]

Big crowds gathered in our local park area, no masks, no social distancing

Mr FM did a photo shoot recently for some med students who had just graduated - no official photos at graduation apparently. His first question before he agreed to do the shoot was had they attended Diwali celebrations. He is definitely not taking chances

 

[RAM]

I would like to see evidence that this alleged behaviour is widespread. Most people want to come in to work, do thier job, go home. 'Building and maintaining power' takes an awful lot of effort.

You hit the nail on the head - and that's the problem.

Ever wonder why Australian University Vice-chancellors are paid close to double what higher ranking US & UK university vice-Chancellors are? For example the just ex-Sydney vice-Chancellor is off to a position at a higher ranking UK university for around 40% of the pay.

To see evidence of how widespread - just look at any State's Auditor General site, go through the reports & you will find near identical issues that were raised in the same reports for that Dept 3 or 4 or 5 years earlier. NSW Dept of Transport is a great example of this.

More topically - valuations for property acquired by the NSW Govt.

Pandemic or not, there's a lot of work that needs to happen, both practical and legal. IT systems rarely speak to each other for a start... so getting a file of data from telco doesn't mean other systems can just read that file and start analysing data. I wish it was that simple! You might build a link to read one telco's data... but it doesn't mean you'll be able to read data from a different telco using the same software..

Any IT specialist worth their salary can create a report writer to an ascii file that can be upoaded - within one day. Go back to the 1980s & 1990s and there were more than 30 different languages & versions in existence that all had to communicate. These days in the Microsoft world - so much has been standardised to our detriment (inferior approaches). That's why COBOL still exists in many large organisations - a 1960s language that handles big data with ease & is superfast in doing so.

You only have to build the link once for each provider! It is month eight after all. As the report states - none of this has been done, they are recommending that it should be looked into. Door, horse, bolted?

To do a quick & dirty fix these days simply print the output as a PDF and then convert it to excel as a mid-step. Simple. Send the cheque to.....

You may not realise that global financial clearing house (transaction processor) operations have been standardised for years. A clearing house use by say Citibank, processes transactions from your Citi CC for online purchases in India, physical purchases in Tashkent etc etc.

Remember 'Big Data' - that's all about merging data from every accessible source under the sun....

However, just because something is logical & sensible also nearly always rules out it happening - too much at risk of altering the organisation's status quo.

Somebody (Yes, Minister!) might have the idea of introducing this idea across the entire bureaucracy!

Real world & Australian example. Despite FinTRAC, now called AusTRAC being set up around 1989 - it had only launched 3 prosecutions in its first 25 years - it repeatedly turned away whistleblowers. This was spectacularly demonstrated with the Macquarie Bank Associate Director's insider trading - where the CBA teller was threatened with the sack after AusTRAC contacted the CBA to compain about being contacted directly by him. The teller only contacted AusTRAC directly as CBA had refused to do anything & already threatened (in writing) to sack the teller.

What was not publicly revealed though is that up until relatively recently all financial institutions for some reason provided the exact same required data in totally different formats & order. Forget the computer language used, it even went to providing one column with commas & decimal points and the next with decimal points only, & the sub totals sometimes showing $ signs with commas for a column where the intervening numbers did not have $ signs nor commas.

No two datasets provided were the same. Even more interesting, from institution A the report may come in COBOL for Q1, Pascal for Q2, BASIC Q3 etc - you get the idea.

You could be forgiven for thinking it was being done deliberately I suppose, but no financial institution would do that, let alone EVERYONE in Australia. Just a coincidence.

Equally, you may have thought that FinTRAC/AusTRAC would have demanded the data be provided in a certain way? Yet for decades they didn't.

Wheels within wheels within wheels.