Australian Reports of the Virus Spread

[lovetravellingoz]

There are too many people out and about, and it will get worse when they start reopening shops and cafes etc. this is the message they need to see. I think it is going to be hard to manage people, it will be a difficult balancing act.

I went for my weekly supermarket shop today at Woolies and was struck by the general lack of social distancing being practiced by the shoppers.

It was all very pre-CV19, and noticeably different and more relaxed than it has been for a while. Maybe it was the nice sunny day!

While not overly full and with ample room, many there made no attempt to keep their distance.

ie I was looking in the meat cabinet thinking what to buy, standing barely one trolley width wide off it when a woman with trolley just walked in front of me.

In the bread aisle I had someone reach across me. Lots of bottlenecks in the aisles. Clumps of people at counters etc.

Oh, and yes not that they were ever really required, but not one shopper wearing a facemask. First time for ages.

 

[Pushka]

It is interesting. In the shops I have been at in Adelaide everyone is keeping their distance. Sanitiser used on entry etc etc. 13 days with no new positives today. Regional travel restarting Monday here and relaxation of numbers at funerals. Not much point going regional though when hotels and cafes etc not open.

 

[kyle]

In the bread aisle I had someone reach across me. Lots of bottlenecks in the aisles. Clumps of people at counters etc.

Not saying it's correct but I can understand someone reaching across. In the past week, there was more than one occasion when I had to wait more than a minute for someone to decide which pack of meat to get and that person didn't even look around to see if anyone's behind him.

 

[Flashback]

Not saying it's correct but I can understand someone reaching across. In the past week, there was more than one occasion when I had to wait more than a minute for someone to decide which pack of meat to get and that person didn't even look around to see if anyone's behind him.

This annoys me a lot, have experienced it many times. How long does it take to decide...... in any case, rather than just reaching it I just stand back and ask if they mind if I grab what I need, most of the time they are OK........ occasionally you get a bit of aggression though.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Not saying it's correct but I can understand someone reaching across. In the past week, there was more than one occasion when I had to wait more than a minute for someone to decide which pack of meat to get and that person didn't even look around to see if anyone's behind him.

Well at that moment in the bread aisle for a good 10 m either way (there are many different breads and brands to select from) there was only me and the impatient one who chose to just reach across in front of me. And I had only arrived seconds ago.

No excuse me, or can I get.......just an arm appearing in front of me!

 

[get me outta here]

If you need something and someone else is in the way and taking too long the polite thing to do is to say, “excuse me do you mind if I just....“. And start to look like you want to reach so that they can see what you want. Reaching across someone is rude and makes them too close.

 

[Tiki]

Has anyone had the antibodies test yet? How do you get it done? I was in Istanbul and Qatar the end of Feb. I am hoping I may have been asymptomatic. Worth a shot! I saw TPG had the test a couple days ago, got lucky and has antibodies.

 

[RooFlyer]

TPG?

 

[Flashback]

TPG?

The Point(les)s Guy.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Has anyone had the antibodies test yet? How do you get it done? I was in Istanbul and Qatar the end of Feb. I am hoping I may have been asymptomatic. Worth a shot! I saw TPG had the test a couple days ago, got lucky and has antibodies.

Though no one yet knows if it makes one immune, and if does how long the immunity will last for.

With other similar viruses some have made people immune, and some not....

Can you get the COVID-19 coronavirus twice?

The science is far from certain, but it appears at least a proportion of people who have had COVID-19 will be protected from another infection – at least initially.

theconversation.com

 

[Tiki]

Yes The Points Guy, American blogger. I read he had the test done and it showed he had antibodies. So I wanted to see if maybe I did too. I called the Covid 19 hotline but they only know about the swab tests if you have symptoms. No one knows about the antibody test. I thought someone here might have done it and knows the drill?

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Yes The Points Guy, American blogger. I read he had the test done and it showed he had antibodies. So I wanted to see if maybe I did too. I called the Covid 19 hotline but they only know about the swab tests if you have symptoms. No one knows about the antibody test. I thought someone here might have done it and knows the drill?

See my link above...plus there are antobodies and antibodies evidently and the CV19 antiobody test evidently does not test to see if an antibody is a neutralising antibody, you need to do special laboratory tests to see the effect of the antibody in cells exposed to the virus.

 

[Tiki]

Thank you for the link. But we have to start somewhere so at least knowing if I had it aysmptomatically is a good start for me. But are these tests being done here? I got the idea from the news that they want to step up the testing

 

[tgh]

A heap of anecdotal reports of poor social distancing on swmbo's chat group.
General spin from several sources suggests that everyone is out and about, many places are already crowded and many are not social distancing.
Very sad to see as it seems we may have done all the hard work only to fall into a hole on an infection rebound.

 

[p--and--t]

I went for my weekly supermarket shop today at Woolies and was struck by the general lack of social distancing being practiced by the shoppers.

It was all very pre-CV19, and noticeably different and more relaxed than it has been for a while. Maybe it was the nice sunny day!

While not overly full and with ample room, many there made no attempt to keep their distance.

ie I was looking in the meat cabinet thinking what to buy, standing barely one trolley width wide off it when a woman with trolley just walked in front of me.

In the bread aisle I had someone reach across me. Lots of bottlenecks in the aisles. Clumps of people at counters etc.

Oh, and yes not that they were ever really required, but not one shopper wearing a facemask. First time for ages.

A heap of anecdotal reports of poor social distancing on swmbo's chat group.
General spin from several sources suggests that everyone is out and about, many places are already crowded and many are not social distancing.
Very sad to see as it seems we may have done all the hard work only to fall into a hole on an infection rebound.

Doesn't augur well for the prevention of a second wave.

I some times wonder whether Darwin's Theory withstands scrutiny. After many millenniums on the earth, mankind is still littered with "defectives".

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Thank you for the link. But we have to start somewhere so at least knowing if I had it aysmptomatically is a good start for me.

Why? Without anything yet known on the benefits or not of having caught it you will be none the wiser anyway.

There are just so many unknowns. Even if immunity is imparted it may vary with some more immune than others. ie some may gain effective immunity and some not. Maybe no one will. Until they have a test for immunity then little is to be gained for the individual.

Some widescale anitibody testing will be of use to the epidemiologists in studying spread etc, but for Jane-Public little is to be gained.

Also with the ones that some people have bought online how reliable they are is highly questionable with numerous warnings from the CDC etc and they have given both wrong positive and wrong negative tests. So you might test positive, believe you are immune when you may never actually have had CV19.

But are these tests being done here? I got the idea from the news that they want to step up the testing

A number of issues were raised by our health authorities and they do not seem that keen on them, except for epidemiological reasons.

They are not always accurate.
They only show if you have had it. Not if you have it.

The link below may answer some of your questions.

"We really don't understand a lot about antibody testing yet in terms of how long those antibodies do take to appear and in fact, what they mean when they do appear," said Dr Gail Matthews, from St Vincent's Infectious Diseases department.

When it comes to coronavirus testing, not all tests are created equal - ABC News

Australia is significantly expanding testing for COVID-19 across the country in order to stay on top of the virus and provide a path to re-open large portions of public life, but experts believe some tests are not up to scratch.

www.abc.net.au

 

[Princess Fiona]

The handling of Newmarch has been disgraceful.

I think without knowing the full details it’s really hard to judge.
It certainly has been a devastating outbreak with terrible consequences for the residents

 

[jase05]

29 cases in Australia today

17 in Victoria
7 cases were from overseas travellers in quarantine hotels
4 cases were from Cedar Meats
6 cases under investigation
10,000 Tests

 

[lovetravellingoz]

29 cases in Australia today

17 in Victoria
7 cases were from overseas travellers in quarantine hotels
4 cases were from Cedar Meats
6 cases under investigation
10,000 Tests

So the 6 cases, most likely from the expanded testing, will be interesting ones to see if they are cases of unknown community transmission. A key reason for the expanded testing (100,000 tests as a goal in 14 days) was to flush out such infections.

The quarantine cases are essentially irrelevant in terms of spread, and Cedar Meats while obviously most unfortunate is a known cluster that will probably for several days to a week yet continue to generate new cases.

 

[Julesmac]

I had to make a dash to the supermarket (have been getting online deliveries & the fruit & veg done by daughters) husband immuno compromised and we are both over 70. Gosh it was scary - how hard is it to calculate the correct distance? When one woman came too close I got a fright, exclaimed 'ah' & jumped back - she backpedalled very quickly so I tried it a few more times- worked a treat! But it was quite nerve wracking - and afterwards I thought if anything else is needed then someone else can get if for me.