Australian Reports of the Virus Spread

[lovetravellingoz]

From Tuesday international aircrew in Sydney can only stay at 2 hotels rather than the current two dozen.


Also more policing and supervision so that the current optional following of rules will no longer be optional as will be supervised and monitored.

 

[dajop]

Nephew is on the plane to Adelaide having been released from NSW overseas quarantine this morning. He is extremely stressed.

We're due out of quarantine tomorrow morning.

I hope Victoria stay rational. If we are required to do 2 week home quarantine it is possible as our holiday house is free until that 2 weeks is over, but would require some thought as that would leave me with just 2 weeks in Victoria with relatives after 4 weeks in quarantine.

If we have to do 2 weeks hotel quarantine in Melbourne , I'll be on the next flight back to Singapore.

 

[SydneySwan]

If we have to do 2 weeks hotel quarantine in Melbourne , I'll be on the next flight back to Singapore.

Is it that easy to get permission to leave?

 

[dajop]

Is it that easy to get permission to leave?

Yes if you don't normally reside in Australia. They just check immigration records to confirm this, which for me will be fine. I may have to wait a day or so depending on how long in advance I need to complete Singapore entry declaration.

 

[jakeseven7]

We're due out of quarantine tomorrow morning.

I hope Victoria stay rational. If we are required to do 2 week home quarantine it is possible as our holiday house is free until that 2 weeks is over, but would require some thought as that would leave me with just 2 weeks in Victoria with relatives after 4 weeks in quarantine.

If we have to do 2 weeks hotel quarantine in Melbourne , I'll be on the next flight back to Singapore.

Not decided yet...

The Victorian government has not ruled out shutting the border to NSW residents, with travellers asked to isolate for 14 days if they visited Sydney’s northern beaches or other NSW exposure sites in the last week.

Travellers from ‘red zone’ face quarantine as Sydney outbreak grows

People travelling to Victoria from Sydney’s northern beaches will be sent into mandatory hotel quarantine after a coronavirus outbreak grew to 28 confirmed cases on Friday.

www.theage.com.au

 

[Lynda2475]

It was only mentioned briefly but the NSW residents from the Avalon cluster who reside from outside the Northern Beaches LGA were from Cronulla and Garden Island (the latter must be in or work for the Navy)

 

[Lynda2475]

Other interesting take away form the NSW presser was that the driver for the changes to quarantine for air crew was fact that one particluar airline (not named) had several crew break isolation rules and attended a bar/restaurant. Police were called, all were tested and found to be negative.

The two hotels to be used from Tuesday for all foreign airline crews (no changes for Aussie crew yet, even though a large number lie on northern beaches) will be located near the airport not in the city and policed.

 

[ozstamps]

.
QLD just announced 14 day quarantine for NSW arrivals.

All 51 arriving flights today are being met by Qld police.

These things change FAST.

 

[BNEFlyer]

.
QLD just announced 14 day quarantine for NSW arrivals.

All 51 arriving flights today are being met by Qld police.

These things change FAST.

14 day quarantine for arrivals who have been in the northern beaches hotspot, it's not for all of NSW.

 

[justinbrett]

Other interesting take away form the NSW presser was that the driver for the changes to quarantine for air crew was fact that one particluar airline (not named) had several crew break isolation rules and attended a bar/restaurant. Police were called, all were tested and found to be negative.

The two hotels to be used from Tuesday for all foreign airline crews (no changes for Aussie crew yet, even though a large number lie on northern beaches) will be located near the airport not in the city and policed.

The difference being that Aussie aircrews are in strict quarantine overseas to stop them bringing back covid. Foreign aircrews are mixing with families, going to bars and restaurants (if open) etc. You can’t hotel quarantine them on both ends otherwise they’ll be in permanent quarantine. A lot easier to restrict them overseas and have a somewhat normal life here - especially as we still don’t have scheduled pax flights yet so would be a lot of down time with only freight and re-pats

 

[Zinger]

.
QLD just announced 14 day quarantine for NSW arrivals.

All 51 arriving flights today are being met by Qld police.

These things change FAST.

14 day quarantine for arrivals who have been in the northern beaches hotspot, it's not for all of NSW.

And applies from tomorrow.

 

[james4321]

Other interesting take away form the NSW presser was that the driver for the changes to quarantine for air crew was fact that one particluar airline (not named) had several crew break isolation rules and attended a bar/restaurant. Police were called, all were tested and found to be negative.

The two hotels to be used from Tuesday for all foreign airline crews (no changes for Aussie crew yet, even though a large number lie on northern beaches) will be located near the airport not in the city and policed.

So that begs the question - why was this clearly identified glaring hole in the system not dealt with at that time? Surely this was a big red flashing warning light - had it been then the current outbreak likely would not have occurred. Seems like the so called "Gold Standard" (actually Hazzard used the term "Platinum Standard" this morning) actually has a few lumps of lead attached?

 

[Pushka]

From Tuesday international aircrew in Sydney can only stay at 2 hotels rather than the current two dozen.


Also more policing and supervision so that the current optional following of rules will no longer be optional as will be supervised and monitored.

I heard on the radio today that at the last national cabinet meeting, the SA Premier suggested that overseas airline crew be more rigorously supervised - (maybe even just supervised would be a start) but it wasn’t implemented as there was considered no need. . Mmm. A week later and ooops.

SA Health and Police making a statement in 30 minutes.

 

[N860CR]

The difference being that Aussie aircrews are in strict quarantine overseas to stop them bringing back covid. Foreign aircrews are mixing with families, going to bars and restaurants (if open) etc. You can’t hotel quarantine them on both ends otherwise they’ll be in permanent quarantine. A lot easier to restrict them overseas and have a somewhat normal life here - especially as we still don’t have scheduled pax flights yet so would be a lot of down time with only freight and re-pats

There also has to be a common sense approach that weighs up the overall health impact on the crew members. I’ll give an example, a friend of mine is a captain for a cargo operator. His current workload involves flying overseas on 14 day trips. He spends that entire 2 week period either on the aeroplane or locked in a hotel room. He then returns home to Sydney where he isolates at home, wearing a mask, sleeping in a separate room to his wife and avoiding contact with his children. Rinse and repeat 2 weeks or so later.

Now adjust that and add “goes from Sydney airport to the Stamford and is locked in a hotel room” and we’re talking about physically imprisoning people indefinitely.

The crews are keeping our freight connections running, bringing Australians home and keeping the world moving. Short of Australia literally locking itself closed indefinitely, these sorts of issues will come up and they simply need to be managed. Thus far, NSW seems to be doing a pretty good job.

 

[Pushka]

So that begs the question - why was this clearly identified glaring hole in the system not dealt with at that time? Surely this was a big red flashing warning light - had it been then the current outbreak likely would not have occurred. Seems like the so called "Gold Standard" (actually Hazzard used the term "Platinum Standard" this morning) actually has a few lumps of lead attached?

It was raised last Friday as per above but dismissed.

 

[drron]

They should lockdown the northern beaches.Actually not too hard to do that with limited roads out if you block off the Coastal road at Narrabeen lakes.

But one bit of good news they had tested the northern beaches sewage on 10/12 one day before the first case and it was negative for C19.Testing was being done again yesterday according to the NSW CHO.If now positive unlikely the virus has been circulating in the northern beaches for a long time.

 

[Lynda2475]

It was clarified air crew breach 2 weeks ago is not in anyway linked to the Avaon cluster - all crew tested negative and had not viisted the northern beaches LGA. But there is the US crew doing wrong thing at hotel of the infected cleaner which I mentioned earlier.

Gladys stressed the issue with internal crews has been 100% compliance not the guidelines; and difficulty in taking legal action against foreigners if they have left the country.

Hazard spoke at some length about the negotuations required to change the rules for foreign crews - a lot of diplomatic negotiations due to international rules. There are apprently over 2000 arriving and leaving SYD each week on passenger and freight flights. The airlines pushed back about different rules in different states here. It seems Mr Hazzard had to get Qld and Vic to also agree to change their rules at the same time (stay tuned for an announcement), to get the airlines to agree to keep flying with more restrictions.

Its important we have freight coming in and are still able to bring aussies home. But yes Im disappointed this was in place much much earlier.

Also the "Platinum"standard comment was about contract tracing. I cringed when I heard it, but then again they have been doing an amazing job.

 

[Lynda2475]

heard on the radio today that at the last national cabinet meeting, the SA Premier suggested that overseas airline crew be more rigorously supervised - (maybe even just supervised would be a start) but it wasn’t implemented as there was considered no need. . Mmm. A week later and ooops.

That contradicts this mornings press conference which said that the negotiations with the airlines to tighten the rules in NSW was started over 2 weeks ago, and that it needed Vic and Qld to also agree to change to get cooperation of all the different carriers that fly to SYD.

 

[Lynda2475]

On the plus side Federal Health minister has just stated that to date no cases in aged care residents, but one case in a retirement village within the Avalon cluster.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

On the plus side Federal Health minister has just stated that to date no cases in aged care, but one case in a retirement village within the Avalon cluster.

Is the one case a resident? if so, hopefully moved immediately to a hospital.