Australian Reports of the Virus Spread

[MEL_Traveller]

This border concept just gets weirder and weirder. The New Daily today reported on a man in Melbourne who said he should not have been put into hotel quarantine. The ND said

'The 24-year-old says he was living in New South Wales for nine months, but remained a Victorian resident.'

As if COVID actually cares where you think you may be technically resident.

So the odd thing about this is that he has a Victorian driver licence, but on the advice of the police he updated the address to one in Sydney as he was spending most of 2020 there due to covid restrictions.

Had he not updated the address to one in Sydney, does that mean he would have been able to return and quarantine at home?

Seems like a loophole for all those who maintained a Vic address?

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Hopefully new cases will start to taper off from now on that given the end of the initial incubation period from when the outbreak first became public is now coming up. ie Hopefully there will have been less new transmissions to yet become positive cases.

 

[love_the_life]

Diddums, NB mayor says residents are ‘over it’ and had enough and want it to end.

 

[Lynda2475]

Dr Chant said currently only 5 under investigation, wondering why that chart states 9?

 

[Lynda2475]

One would hope police will be out in force at Bronte and Bondi ensuring no repeat of boxing day on NYE - time to send those backpackers home if they cant respesct the freedoms we have here, if they were back in Europe theyd be locked inside.

 

[Lynda2475]

NSW Man, 70, dies from coronavirus​

"Although his death is considered to be related to Covid-19, he had recently tested negative, was no longer infectious and posed no risk to the community. NSW Health extends its sympathies to his family.”

Dr Kerry Chant followed up: "This was a gentleman in his 70s who died on 21 December from respiratory complications following a COVID
infection diagnosed in March.

"He was a household contact for locally-acquired case and although his death is considered to be related to COVID, so that's based on the doctors completing a death certificate as to the cause of death, he had recently tested negative and was no longer infectious and posed no risk to the community."

She continued: "I think this highlights the fact that sometimes the complications can be so severe that the lung damage and other complications arising from COVID, that that can subsequently be the cause of death many months later."

Post automatically merged: Dec 28, 2020

From ABC:

Updated restrictions announced for Sydney's northern beaches​

For the Northern Beaches northern zone the following rules apply until January 9:

• Indoor and outdoor gatherings will be allowed for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day but will be restricted to five visitors in total from within the same zone (and includes at homes).
• Current arrangements allowing five people to gather outdoors (not at homes) for exercise and recreation, from within the same zone, continues.
• No restaurants, cafes, pubs or clubs (except for takeaway) will be permitted to open, including for New Year's Eve.

For the southern zone of the Northern Beaches the following rules apply until January 2:

• Indoor and outdoor gatherings will be allowed for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day but will be restricted to 10 visitors in total from within the same zone (and includes at homes).
• Current arrangements allowing 10 people to gather outdoors (not at homes) for exercise and recreation, from within the same zone, continues.
• No restaurants, cafes, pubs or clubs (except for takeaway) will be permitted to open, including for New Year's Eve.

For Greater Sydney, Central Coast and Wollongong the following rules apply:

• Gatherings in the home remain at 10 visitors in total (including children).
• Outside gatherings (such as picnics) will be restricted to 50 people in total (down from 100).

For regional NSW there is no change to current arrangements.

 

[Flying mermaid]

Diddums, NB mayor says residents are ‘over it’ and had enough and want it to end.

Dan used to say in his daily briefings “just because people want this to be over, it isn’t”. Very grateful to Northern Beach residents for doing the right thing and keeping us safe.

 

[love_the_life]

Dan used to say in his daily briefings “just because people want this to be over, it isn’t”. Very grateful to Northern Beach residents for doing the right thing and keeping us safe.

Just wish the mayor would pull his head in.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Dr Chant said currently only 5 under investigation, wondering why that chart states 9?

Chart has 8. You may have added the purple (known) to the pink (under investigation) to get 9.

Chart would have been prepared before Chant spoke today and so they may have linked more cases since the chart was done.

ie 6 in the last week and 2 the week prior (The table below from NSW Health has data to 8PM last night) = 8.



And/ or it may be they view things differently. ie Have the transport worker and partner who were gnomically linked to the Avalon Cluster been transmission linked yet?

Did Chant detail who the 5 remaining unlinked cases were? And did she say if it was over the last 7 , 14 or 28 days?

Numbers to 8pm last night for NSW Health did daily update as shown on their website has it as 10 over 28 days. The graph above is 14 days.

 

[jb747]

So the odd thing about this is that he has a Victorian driver licence, but on the advice of the police he updated the address to one in Sydney as he was spending most of 2020 there due to covid restrictions.

Had he not updated the address to one in Sydney, does that mean he would have been able to return and quarantine at home?

Seems like a loophole for all those who maintained a Vic address?

Unless you are going to close the border and allow nobody to cross, there will always be ways around any restrictions.

I do know of one local lass who now lives in Richmond, NSW. She was home for the holidays before all of this blew up. As she still has a Victorian licence, with local address, nothing would have stopped her behaving like a local. For what it's worth, family did the right things re testing and isolation, and she went back to NSW.

 

[drron]

Just wish the mayor would pull his head in.

Though to give him his due he is the mayor of the whole Northern Beaches council area which stretches between Palm Beach to Manly.It has over half the population of Tasmania,70% of the ACT's population and more than the NT.
he is saying that the southern end of the council area which has similiar case numbers to Sydney CBD and the Eastern suburbs should not have the same restrictions as the northern end of the area which could be easily blocked off.

Sydney's Northern Beaches mayor Michael Regan pleaded for the 'south zone' lockdown to end ahead of New Year's Eve.

The area has been cut in two at the Narrabeen Bridge to give those outside the Avalong epicentre of the outbreak some room to breathe.

But Mayor Regan said south zone should now have the same freedoms as the rest of Sydney because there were no longer many cases there.

Northern Beaches mayor wants south zone freedom like rest of Sydney

Sydney's Northern Beaches mayor Michael Regan pleaded for the 'south zone' lockdown to end ahead of New Year's Eve, as it didn't make sense for them to continue with so few cases.

www.dailymail.co.uk

When you see pictures of Bondi and Bronte beaches on Boxing day and compare them to Manly beach he does have a point.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

You can understand that why NYE will have them wanting to be cautious though.

Normally on NYE most people have or attend parties or other social gatherings, some of them quite massive, many party-hop and quite a number go overboard. Lot's of hugging and kissing and casual interactions can abound. The potential for super-spreading is high if there are any infectious carriers out and about.

Plus police etc are extremely busy on such a night and so encouraging good CV19 behaviours would be challenging.

So the less normal, and less mixing there is on NYE 2020 anywhere near where cases have been the lower the risk.

 

[Lynda2475]

he is saying that the southern end of the council area which has similiar case numbers to Sydney CBD and the Eastern suburbs should not have the same restrictions as the northern end of the area which could be easily blocked off.

Dr Chant did comment this morning that there is usually a lot of movement between the northern and southern areas of the Northern Beaches LGA, and since they havent yet found patient zero, they need to keep some restrictions on southern end until they are more confident there isnt major seeding outside Avalnon/Palm beach.

People on the southern side of the harbour bridge are less likley t have regular intercaftion with those from Avalon area than those in Manly.

Sounded like souther eare will get some more restrictions eased on 3rd Jan (to be announced on 2nd Jan).

Except for the transport driver and bondi case (and those in hotel quarantine) all other currently active cases outside Northern Beaches LGA have been linked directly to interaction with someone from Northern beaches.

Whilst the NB mayor may think it unfair, he needs ot realise that Gladys has allowed more freedoms than Dan Andrews did the whole of Melbourne and another 6 days of restrictins for Southern Northern Beaches and another 15 days for Northern Northern Beaches is a small ask for the greater good - all up will be about 21 and 28 days - whereas in Vic it was 4 tmes that!

Also if more people get tested over the next week (back up over 20k across greater Sydney every day) they will have more confidence to reopen/

 

[Lynda2475]

ABC News reporting selfish people from NB breaching rules:

NSW Police say more than 12 wedding guests from Sydney's northern beaches broke stay-at-home orders to attend a wedding across town last night. It comes as the state today recorded five new COVID-19 cases.

Police have issued nine Penalty Infringement Notices (PINs) and will issue another three following a wedding reception that breached a Public Health Order in Sydney yesterday.

Officers from Sydney City Police Area Command were called to a venue on Pirrama Road, Pyrmont, about 5pm (Sunday 27 December 2020), after receiving information from Crime Stoppers in relation to possible breaches of a Public Health Order.

After speaking with staff and attendees, police recorded contact details for more than a dozen guests, who are Northern Beaches residents.

Following further inquiries and consultation with NSW Health, $1000 PINs for not comply with noticed direction s7/8/9-COVID-19 have now been issued to the following people;

- a man and woman, both aged 43, from Allambie Heights

- a 33-year-old woman from Narraweena

- a 27-year-old man from Frenches Forest, and

- three women – aged 19, 22 and 28 – and two men – aged 23 and 63 – all from Beacon Hill.

A further three PINs are expected to be issued to a 34-year-old man and a 36-year-old woman, both from Frenchs Forest, and a 26-year-old man from Beacon Hill.

Inquiries are continuing.

Police continue to appeal to the community to report suspected breaches of any ministerial direction or behaviour which may impact on the health and safety of the community.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Santa brought my wife and I a slightly sore throat this morning. So it was off for testing for us.

10.29AM: Swab sample completed and SMS received while sitting in the car just as we were driving out.

8:12 PM: SMS received stating that COVID-19 virus was not detected.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

I haven’t gone in detail for today’s figures, but in the recent press conferences the NSW CHO only tends to mention the unlinked cases of interest, rather than all the unlinked cases.

I believe some of the 10 unlinked cases are:
- 4/12 hotel quarantine worker, not directly linked
- crew transport driver, not directly linked to crew
- Belrose hotel worker around 23/12, but probably got it around 10/12
- Belrose hotel visitor on 11/12 who is a firefighter
- nurse who transported positive people and colleague (who went to Griffith/Orange perhaps), genomically linked to Avalon but not directly linked as at two days ago
- Start of Avalon cluster still unknown (hence the first two cases still unlinked.
- Bondi - still thought of as likely false positive two days ago but was to be reviewed by expert panel
- worker at Manly that commutes from outside Northern Beaches

 

[andye]

ABC News reporting selfish people from NB breaching rules:

NSW Police say more than 12 wedding guests from Sydney's northern beaches broke stay-at-home orders to attend a wedding across town last night. It comes as the state today recorded five new COVID-19 cases.

Police have issued nine Penalty Infringement Notices (PINs) and will issue another three following a wedding reception that breached a Public Health Order in Sydney yesterday.

Officers from Sydney City Police Area Command were called to a venue on Pirrama Road, Pyrmont, about 5pm (Sunday 27 December 2020), after receiving information from Crime Stoppers in relation to possible breaches of a Public Health Order.

After speaking with staff and attendees, police recorded contact details for more than a dozen guests, who are Northern Beaches residents.

Following further inquiries and consultation with NSW Health, $1000 PINs for not comply with noticed direction s7/8/9-COVID-19 have now been issued to the following people;

- a man and woman, both aged 43, from Allambie Heights

- a 33-year-old woman from Narraweena

- a 27-year-old man from Frenches Forest, and

- three women – aged 19, 22 and 28 – and two men – aged 23 and 63 – all from Beacon Hill.

A further three PINs are expected to be issued to a 34-year-old man and a 36-year-old woman, both from Frenchs Forest, and a 26-year-old man from Beacon Hill.

Inquiries are continuing.

Police continue to appeal to the community to report suspected breaches of any ministerial direction or behaviour which may impact on the health and safety of the community.

For those whose Sydney geography is sketchy, those are all residents of the Southern half of the Northern Beaches. Still acting well outside of the Public Health Orders

 

[SydneySwan]

For those whose Sydney geography is sketchy, those are all residents of the Southern half of the Northern Beaches. Still acting well outside of the Public Health Orders

I expect that when Crime Stoppers was setup no-one envisaged getting tip offs about residents illegally crossing the Spit or Roseville Bridges!

 

[Lynda2475]

Perhaps not, but very glad what I assume was another guest dobbed them in. If there are no consequences for breaking health orders then more people are likley to do so. Heading intio NYE NSW Police likely need more controlled roadblocks on NB exits (there arent that many).

There is one nail salon (not the one I go to) at my local shops, which is the only shop in the strip not to have a QR code (still using pen and paper). A friend asked them last week why no QR code when its been mandatory for beauty services for ages and owner said she doesnt want to. I suspect they dont want to admit how much business they really do, as probably arent declaring some of the cash payments as income. If I walk past on Friday (the day Service NSW QR code is mandated) and QR code isnt up, crime stoppers just might get a call from me which would mean a $5k fine for them.

 

[Pushka]

Perhaps not, but very glad what I assume was another guest dobbed them in. If there are no consequences fro breaking health orders then more people are likley to do so. Heading intio NYE NSW Police likely need more controlled roadblocks on NB exits (there arent that many).

There is one nail salon (not the one I go to) at my local, which is the only shop in the area not to have a QR code (still using pen and paper). A friend asked them last week why no QR code when its been mandatory for beauty serrvices for ages and owner said she doesnt want to. I suspect they dont want to admit how much business they really do, as probably arent declaring some of the cash payments. If I walk past on Friday (day Servie NSW QR code is mandated) and QR code isnt up, crime stoppers just might get a call from me which would mean a $5k fine for them.

Isn't just the provision of a pen and paper and getting people to manually sign in, enough in NSW? I know it is in SA due to people not having smart phones or who forget them.