Australian Reports of the Virus Spread

[james4321]

But when a CMO has full control this is what happens.

Given the choice between giving full control to the CMO or a to a politician - I know which one I would choose !!

 

[Must...Fly!]

The choices do seem to be oddly thought out, though. For example there are plenty of people in our community who (sadly as far as I'm concerned) rely on take away meals for food....shutting down every Macca's, HJs, local pizza shop all across the state at less than 12 hours notice is just bizarre at best and extremely poorly thought out policy which will have far reaching consequences at worst

 

[RooFlyer]

The SA premier shows why he is one of the more sensible of the current crop (along with the NSW Premier). Part of an article in the Oz:

Australia must not be panicked into closing borders and “smashing the national economy” every time the coronavirus flares, Steven Marshall said as three states shut their borders to South Australia despite it recording just five new cases on Tuesday.

The SA Premier’s comments were backed by federal Health Minister Greg Hunt, who said the state was managing the outbreak well and that the cluster — which now numbers 20 — did not constitute a hotspot.

“Our message is very clear; there is a national hotspot definition,” Mr Hunt said. “South Australia has not reached that. There has been no advice that any state or territory should be closed to any state or territory.”

Mr Marshall said he understood why some states jumped on Monday when cases appeared to be surging in SA but argued that contact tracing and mass testing was the best way to deal with what would hopefully be a hastily contained threat.

Speaking to The Australian, Mr Marshall commended NSW, Victoria and the ACT for remaining open to SA visitors, but urged the other states and the NT to review their border closures on a scientific basis using infection data provided to their health departments.

 

[RAM]

The total lock down of a whole state with even more strict conditions than what Vic had i.e. no takeaway food, has me wondering what they arent telling us?

SA's total population is 1.8m vs Sydney or Melbourne alone at 5 million.

As the CMO said - we do not know where all the hundreds of customers of the Pizza shop have gone, we're about to have schoolies celebrations across the State & last weekend was the massive festival with people from all across SA coming into Adelaide.

There are no natural barriers (ring roads etc) to lock down Adelaide from Adelaide Hills for example.

How many of those have since visited nursing homes for example?

If SA is lucky - none at the festival were infected. A number of those from the 5 schools with links to positive CV cases - went to the festival.

What if SA is unlucky?

They've seen what NSW caused with the 'bad luck' around Ruby Princess, Victoria with the hotel night manager outbreak - would you really want to run the risk of having potentially dozens perhaps hundreds of peoples' mums/dads etc deaths on your conscience.

I wouldn't.

 

[Pushka]

The choices do seem to be oddly thought out, though. For example there are plenty of people in our community who (sadly as far as I'm concerned) rely on take away meals for food....shutting down every Macca's, HJs, local pizza shop all across the state at less than 12 hours notice is just bizarre at best and extremely poorly thought out policy which will have far reaching consequences at worst

I think the guy working at the pizza place is the sole reason why all takeaways have been shut down because well,

 

[RooFlyer]

Still waiting for the damning avalanche of Federal politicians to start attacking SA like they did VIC for months in a row.... mmmmmm

Well, you'll first have to wait for the SA outbreak to be anywhere near the magnitude of the Vic outbreak (think ... hundreds and hundreds of deaths and hundreds and hundreds of cases per day, through the fault of the failure of a government-run quarantine hotel), and the SA outbreak to be so egregious that an inquiry had to be called.

 

[Pushka]

Given the panic buying happening here right now, if Covid wasn't circulating in the community it likely is now. Realised that I can still walk to the supermarket, Doctors and Chemist and the fastest way is along the beachfront as the other side doesn't have a footpath so I do have a small outing planned every day. Avec mask.

 

[andye]

From News.com

Adelaide outbreak caught 'by luck'

Dr Chris Moy, the president of the South Australian branch of the AMA, said it basically came down to luck that the state uncovered its emerging coronavirus cluster.

Dr Moy said it came down to one persistent doctor, who insisted on giving an unwell elderly woman a coronavirus test.
South Australia had been coronavirus-free for seven months when the doctor pushed to test the woman.

The woman, aged in her 80s, is the mother of the quarantine hotel cleaner, who is believed to have contracted the virus from a surface inside Peppers Hotel.

The elderly woman was taken to emergency on Friday night, where she was showing mild symptoms of coronavirus.

Dr Moy said if South Austalia did get on top of the outbreak, "a lot will be due to some degree of luck".

"Because of the conscientiousness of a particular doctor who insisted that a patient with minimal symptoms have a test," Dr Moy added.

"Really to some degree that may make the difference and may mean that we've caught it early and it hasn't got to the Victorian level where it was going on for weeks."

Dr Moy said "by the grace of God" the doctor "stayed committed to that vigilance in a community that hasn't seen any cases for months and then that has actually closed this down".

The doctor's insistence meant South Australia had hopefully caught it quickly and would be able to "control it like a spot fire instead of it turning into a bushfire as it did in Victoria", Dr Moy said.

My understanding is that in NSW anyone admitted to hospital is routinely given a covid test, regardless of whether they have any symptoms or not. Very surprised to learn this is not the case in SA? Another improvement that is needed - shoudl e the case country wide.

Not true that all NSW admissions get tested. (though everyone gets screening questions and temp check with diversion to the Covid clinic if screen positive)

There are criteria (eg unexplained fever, respiratory illness) that mean they are tested automatically but I am frequently asked to decide about borderline need for a swab (eg patient with fever and positive tests for urine infection, chronically breathless patient)

 

[jakeseven7]

Well, you'll first have to wait for the SA outbreak to be anywhere near the magnitude of the Vic outbreak (think ... hundreds and hundreds of deaths and hundreds and hundreds of cases per day, through the fault of the failure of a government-run quarantine hotel), and the SA outbreak to be so egregious that an inquiry had to be called.

Why wait, they watched VIC and have made the same mistakes.... oh wait, I know why no one is piling on... NOTHING TO SEE HERE

 

[RooFlyer]

and have made the same mistakes..

Have they? What did the Vic enquiry say the problem was, exactly ( trick question).

 

[Lynda2475]

Not true that all NSW admissions get tested. (though everyone gets screening questions and temp check with diversion to the Covid clinic if screen positive)

Then this needs to change nationally, no excuse not to test everyone, it only takes a minute to do a swab when you have already collected all their details for admission.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

Why wait, they watched VIC and have made the same mistakes.... oh wait, I know why no one is piling on... NOTHING TO SEE HERE

Well maybe because everyone saw NZ Auckland get to a total of 150-200 new cases from the cool storage outbreak.

Once there is a breach, it’s not so bad if they are all linked.

 

[Pushka]

Well maybe because everyone saw NZ Auckland get to a total of 150-200 new cases from the cool storage outbreak.

Once there is a breach, it’s not so bad if they are all linked.

So far all the cases have been linked. The issue I believe they are waiting on is the impact of a worker at the pizza place for 10 days presumably while infectious.

 

[Happy Trails]

What did the Vic enquiry say the problem was, exactly ( trick question).

I can't recall.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

So far all the cases have been linked. The issue I believe they are waiting on is the impact of a worker at the pizza place for 10 days presumably while infectious.

So similar issue as Thai Rock - which produced over 100

 

[jakeseven7]

Have they? What did the Vic enquiry say the problem was, exactly ( trick question).

Silly rabbit, I'm talking about the Federal government media releases and No News campaign, not the "facts" from an inquiry! Don't let the facts get in the way of a good old fashioned pile on, whether they can be recalled or not

 

[TheRealTMA]

Interesting discussion.

You may be able to buy a COVID vaccine ahead of the government rollout. But jumping the queue comes at a price

A private market should have no place in the rollout of a COVID vaccine.

theconversation.com

 

[Port Power]

I would guess that this would seem to be to get a true handle on exactly how many infections that there may already be or not be and where they may be (which given that the existing cases have been out and about is potentially widespread), and for mixing in the interim to not result in even more from those already infected but who do not know that they are..

While they do seem to be on the overly harsh side, it is better to be that than way too easy.

The most important thing is to be swift. At the start of the Vic Second Wave the tendency tended to be be to wait for data before applying new measures and that tended to just have us chasing our tail.

I’ve been watching the Afternoon Briefing and they said they have learned lessons from Melbourne. Rather than waiting so long after the initial case for starters and then implementing measures piece by piece, therefore causing a long lockdown, SA is going hard, hoping to keep the shutdown very short. And to give time for testing.

There was also discussion of people working in COVID hotels having second jobs. Workers might need the casual extra job financially, but should there be ban?

 

[andye]

Then this needs to change nationally, no excuse not to test everyone, it only takes a minute to do a swab when you have already collected all their details for admission.

This would only be practicable (space-wise) if people were happy not to isolate the patient pending the test result
I'm not convinced that the risk/benefit warrants it. There are a heck of a lot of people admitted to hospital. If you had to test everyone who turned up to ED it would be even worse.

 

[jakeseven7]

There was also discussion of people working in COVID hotels having second jobs. Workers might need the casual extra job financially, but should there be ban?

I don't know but we need some more front page screaming headlines, an inquiry, some sky news 'journos' flying into Adelaide to screech at the CHO/Premier non stop for a few weeks and a few million dollars to find out thats for sure!