Australian Reports of the Virus Spread

[jase05]

Missed the first bit of the WA presser but presuming border is closed to Victoria?
Just heard them make mention that WA residents coming home need to self isolate for 14 days and be tested on day 1 and 11

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Missed the first bit of the WA presser but presuming border is closed to Victoria?
Just heard them make mention that WA residents coming home need to self isolate for 14 days and be tested on day 1 and 11

Yes on the first part.

On the second part WA Police have discretion to deal with returning WA residents who visited Vic for Xmas on a case by case basis.

 

[blackcat20]

VIC is only requiring masks indoors.

 

[MooTime]

That's it, hard hard again.
Oh boy, back on the phone to cancel flights & accom.

WA tourism going to suffer after closing to NSW & VIC, but residents are free.
Lucky country over there!

 

[jase05]

That's it, hard hard again.
Oh boy, back on the phone to cancel flights & accom.

WA tourism going to suffer after closing to NSW & VIC, but residents are free.
Lucky country over there!

Surprised it took this long, did he sleep in today?

 

[Must...Fly!]

I have just changed my flight to leave on the next VA flight from Perth, which is early tomorrow morning.

I have no desire to subject my family to any further onerous restrictions or potentially knocks on the door from the WA Police at any time of the day or night to ensure that I am at home and appropriately self-isolating.

Earlier today I was trying to see if I could change my flight to January 3rd, just so I could have one more dinner with family and an afternoon with some friends.

Things change quickly. I am grateful to have had the week, it is hard to compute not knowing when I will be able to return. My absolute sympathy rests with anyone in a similar position.

Edit: To add, the hold time with VA Plat was about 10 minutes. They were really helpful to deal with. I was on an award flight in Y and wanted to fly in J tomorrow morning, for no other reason than to see what the whole snack box thing was about and frankly, it's made me feel 0.1% better about this whole situation. The agent found a way to get it done relatively quickly by cancelling my original Y ticket for no fee and letting me book online for the new ticket in J. Refund of points & taxes should be back within 21 days.

I am very thankful that they were understanding and also had a compassionate tone. Makes a big difference.

 

[james4321]

Victoria closing its border to the whole state of NSW now.

This is just completely mad. These people live in an absolute fantasy land.

Hopefully QLD will do the same.

 

[Bundy Bear]

There was talk of the vaccine not available in Australia until March I wonder if that will be reconsidered, shows how catchy this virus is, there must have been a gathering before Avalon to blow up so fast.
Feeling sorry for residents from WA who were visiting family in Victoria for Christmas, what a mess.

 

[N860CR]

Hopefully QLD will do the same.

Why?

 

[Pushka]

There was talk of the vaccine not available in Australia until March I wonder if that will be reconsidered, shows how catchy this virus is, there must have been a gathering before Avalon to blow up so fast.
Feeling sorry for residents from WA who were visiting family in Victoria for Christmas, what a mess.

Plus the backdating of when Victorians in WA now have to isolate from 21st December. Good grief.

 

[Must...Fly!]

Plus the backdating of when Victorians in WA now have to isolate from 21st December. Good grief.

Friends of mine came over on the 27th. They are now in a regional area of WA for another 5 days. They have no idea what to do and if they have to face paying for a further week accommodation or if they can return, on their own, to Perth and then ultimately back east.

I also have relatives in Victoria visiting from WA who earlier today had the foresight to change flights to tomorrow, cutting short family reunion time. They still face 14 days self-quarantine here. Luckily some contingency plans were made for their small business, though it may yet still have to remain shuttered for the duration of the proprietor's self-isolation depending how it all works out.

The emotional impact is also significant, on top of the business and financial costs.

 

[MooTime]

Yeah it's crazy that if your already over in WA, your expected to self isolate, what in your hotel, after mixing with public for a week or so already. I understand the reasoning behind it, but really much more of this & nobody will travel & whole sector will suffer big time, Airlines n all.
Vaccine won't be the great saviour anticipated imo.

I don't have an answer, but surely there needs to be a better option & preferably on a national basis. Where's the great minds of this country, obviously not on the public purse.

This state power constitution getting as bad as the 2nd amendment the US has, bloody ridiculous, sorry dumb.

 

[Must...Fly!]

Yeah it's crazy that if your already over in WA, your expected to self isolate, what in your hotel, after mixing with public for a week or so already. I understand the reasoning behind it, but really much more of this & nobody will travel & whole sector will suffer big time, Airlines n all.
Vaccine won't be the great saviour anticipated imo.

I don't have an answer, but surely there needs to be a better option & preferably on a national basis. Where's the great minds of this country, obviously not on the public purse.

This state power constitution getting as bad as the 2nd amendment the US has, bloody ridiculous, sorry dumb.

States don't care. Airlines are not within their remit (unless they are charging market price for regional flying - aka gouging to the pollies when it suits them).

I liked the idea from upthread. Prop up QF and VA, and use GST receipts to do it.

 

[drron]

When the National Cabinet discussed hotspot definitions 7 out of 8 States/territories generally agreed on the definition but wouldn't make it binding.Only WA wouldn't believe the epidemiologists.

The Commonwealth however made the decision to use that definition.It has only declared one hot spot since - the Northern Beaches of Sydney.
That means it is very reasonable for the States and territories to declare that a hot spot and so prohibit travellers who have been there.Preventing travel from the rest of NSW is simply overkill and unreasonable.

However having been declared a hotspot GB should have locked down the northern part of the Northern Beaches which wouldn't have been too hard.That is what helped SA shut down there cluster quickly.Who knows it might have been over by now.

 

[antycbr]

States don't care. Airlines are not within their remit (unless they are charging market price for regional flying - aka gouging to the pollies when it suits them).

I liked the idea from upthread. Prop up QF and VA, and use GST receipts to do it.

That was me. If that doesn’t happen both QF and VA need to ground their nationwide network. No intrastate flights in Queensland and WA and no interstate freight will focus some minds. Airlines seem to be keen to sit by and watch their own deaths at the hands of our Premiers.

While I know this is political... Can I ask where is the Prime Minister? I know he has the risk of losing votes by taking on the states but once again he is missing when multiple states are cutting through the flesh of the Federation. At least make a public statement!

Meanwhile, Sydney Airport needs to be closed to all international arrivals, until we know how Avalon started. Let everyone else take the load for a while.

 

[Must...Fly!]

That was me. If that doesn’t happen both QF and VA need to ground their nationwide network. No intrastate flights in Queensland and WA and no interstate freight will focus some minds. Airlines seem to be keen to sit by and watch their own deaths at the hands of our Premiers.

While I know this is political... Can I ask where is the Prime Minister? I know he has the risk of losing votes by taking on the states but once again he is missing when multiple states are cutting through the flesh of the Federation. At least make a public statement!

I had this thought too. Honestly, I think the feds tried with the national definition of a hotspot as mentioned by @drron , they've tried to broker agreements, and I think have just had enough.

Seems they've decided their role involves providing the vaccine, and so they are focusing on that. And told the states to get stuffed if they want soldiers to man their otherwise imaginary borders. To me it seems they really tried to get everyone to work together cooperatively, with resources and everything else, but each state wants to play their own game. I don't blame the commonwealth for letting them do just that.

 

[Lynda2475]

However having been declared a hotspot GB should have locked down the northern part of the Northern Beaches which wouldn't have been too hard.

She did, lockdown of whole Northern beaches started on 19th Dec and NNB remains in lock down until at least 9th Jan. Only SNB part of the northern beaches is up for some possible easing of some restrictions from the 3rd.

 

[drron]

She did, and it remains in lock down until at least 9th Jan. Only southern part of the northern beaches is up for easing of some restrictions from the 3rd.

That was not a full lockdown as Tasmania experienced in the North west or Adelaide more recently.

Here in north West Tasmania there were police road blocks on all major roads and some of the minor roads.
In Launceston where many tried to get to the police were checking IDs in the CBD and major retail stores.They were also well informed so when a couple found in Spotlight who had used the excuse to get through the road blocks was to go to a medical appt. the constable just said-"so you had an outpatient appt. at the hospital."Answer yes.Constable-Outpatient has been closed for a few weeks-you're nicked-or words to that effect.

So GB's effort IMHO was not what it should have been.

 

[jase05]

She did, lockdown of whole Northern beaches started on 19th Dec and NNB remains in lock down until at least 9th Jan. Only SNB part of the northern beaches is up for some possible easing of some restrictions from the 3rd.

How heavy was the lockdown though?
I’m genuinely interested because I didn’t see any signs of roads/bridges etc being blockaded and manned. Surely manned checkpoints checking the paperwork of everyone coming and going was required

 

[Lynda2475]

There is some concerns on this thread about Sydney still having freworks, however unlikely to be an issues.

There is no family friendly 9pm display, a shorter midnight display but all the habour foreshore is blocked off, except a handful of covid safe ticketed events like the Opera House. Glady cancelled all the essential worker invites, you cant enter the CBD unless you live there or have a booking for a venue and a permit.

Can only have 5 people in your home anywhere in Greater Sydney, neighbours downstairs (2 adults 3 kids) are using ther common BBQ with friends from another unit (3 adults and 3 kids) so far i recognise everyone (they all live here) but as there are 11 down there (i assume the 6 are counting the 5 as visitors) if one ore adult shows up Im calling the cops.

And the biggest factor, the weather is lousy - it is currently raining quite heavily. I just came back from doing the Bay Walk - on NYE typically all the parkland around there is full of families picnicing and to watch the fireworks (you cant see the harbour bridge but you see about 80% of the display). There was absolutely no one in the parks, and only passed about 20 people in the 90 mins we walked.