Australian Reports of the Virus Spread

[jase05]

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk just confirmed that a cleaner at a Brisbane quarantine hotel has tested positive at the Hotel Grand Chancellor.

The woman lives in Algester, in Brisbane’s south. Anyone in Brisbane, especially in the suburbs of Algester, Sunnybank Hills and Calamvale should get tested if they develop symptoms.

A suite of potential exposure sites has been declared by the state’s chief health officer, Dr Jeannette Young, including a Woolworths in Calamvale central shopping centre, and a train from Altandi station to Roma St, and a train from Central to Altandi station on 2 January, and a Coles in Sunnybank Hills on 5 January.
Young said her infectious period was from the 2 January onwards – and she did one shift at the hotel on that day.

 

[Lynda2475]

No mention of whether she was wearing a mask on those shopping trips - I'm guessing not since mask wearing seems non existant in Queensland.

One reason the cleaner case in Sydney did not spread further was that she wore a mask when commuting and shopping.

 

[Pushka]

Having had now 5 cases of the more highly transmissible virus arrive in Melbourne, Vic's current approach is to assume that every person arriving in Oz whether they be flightcrew or passenger may have the the most infectious strain.

This is one reason every HQ worker is tested daily, and why all flightcrew as well as pax are tested. As a % flightcrew recently have been shown to have a highly level of positivity than arriving passengers.

To be honest I don’t understand why all states didn’t have the same approach from the get-go and always assumed that travellers had at least one of the strains until proven otherwise.

Post automatically merged: Jan 7, 2021

Vaccine roll out is now mid February.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

I'm not sure how you 'know I have no confidence', you must be confused because I do have confidence in NSW managing it in their own way, as I've said many times before, I just think it is really unfortunate all the other states don't like / agree with the way NSW approaches the management of it because it results in border closures which are incredibly disruptive on many levels to literally millions of people. I just wish everyone could get on the same page.

I wasn't talking about clusters and didn't mention them.... I was talking the 4 virus escapees in December. Google is your friend if you need to check that. Cleaner, Two drivers and the mystery cluster starter not tracked down yet and unlikely to be now.

Chill

I guess its more your original choice of word - 4 outbreaks. I was wondering what you were referring to.

Perhaps a more subtle term might have been better suited.

Anyhow - the NSW Health four week report indicates 13 mystery cases in total in the following residence LGA:
3 Northern Beaches
3 coughberland
1 Canterbury Bankstown
1 Georges River
1 Lane Cove
1 Strathfield
1 Waverley
1 Wollongong
1 Woollahra

 

[DC3]

With the new roll-out date for our vaccinations in Oz, now within a matter of weeks, hopefully this thread will have little to report as we all get our jabs.

Hopefully the thread can be closed by the end of this year. How about that then?

 

[dajop]

On the topic of the new strain - a worker delivering catering at the Changi Airport hotel at SIN has tested positive to the new strain. These delivery people just knock on the door and leave food at the door, without interaction with hotel guests. This perhaps is a sign of the greater virulence, so Important for our experts in Australia to understand more about the strain, I think, regardless of the plans grandstanding politicians.

... a 24 year-old male Korean national, is a Work Permit holder who works at Azur at Crowne Plaza Changi Airport (75 Airport Boulevard). His job entails delivering pre-packed meals to air crew and hotel guests. He does not interact with diners at Azur.

He tested positive for a pooled swab during Rostered Routine Testing (RRT) on 2 January, and was tested again on 4 January. On the same day, he started to develop acute respiratory infection (ARI) symptoms. His individual test result came back positive for COVID-19 infection on 5 January, and he was conveyed in an ambulance to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases. His serological test result has come back negative, indicating that this is likely a current infection. He has also tested preliminarily positive for the B117 strain, and is pending further confirmatory tests.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

With the new roll-out date for our vaccinations in Oz, now within a matter of weeks, hopefully this thread will have little to report as we all get our jabs.

Hopefully the thread can be closed by the end of this year. How about that then?

Depends on if the vaccine reduces spread and indirectly when State borders and international borders are not being swung open and close.......

 

[tgh]

How will the vaccine reduce spread ?

 

[jakeseven7]

With the new roll-out date for our vaccinations in Oz, now within a matter of weeks, hopefully this thread will have little to report as we all get our jabs.

Hopefully the thread can be closed by the end of this year. How about that then?

As many do not understand, the vaccine will not stop the spread, in fact the spread of the virus may even accelerate.

So this thread might go on FOREVER

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

As many do not understand, the vaccine will not stop the spread, in face the spread of the virus may even accelerate.

So this thread might go on FOREVER

In terms of size, where does this rank in terms of AFF threads???

Perhaps a vaccine might flatten the curve in terms of rate of increase.

 

[SydneySwan]

So this thread might go on FOREVER

That's a relief. I was beginning to wonder how I would fill up the days!

 

[zenyattamondatta]

As many do not understand, the vaccine will not stop the spread

You cannot possibly know that at this juncture.

THE END

 

[jakeseven7]

Australian coronavirus vaccine rollout brought forward to mid-to-late-February​

The rollout of a coronavirus vaccine in Australia will be brought forward to next month, with the Prime Minister saying the first groups are expected to receive a jab in mid-to-late-February.

Key points:​

• The Government is hoping to vaccinate 80,000 people a week initially
• By the end of March its target is to have four million people inoculated
• It is hoping the first vaccine will be approved by the end of the month

Scott Morrison said the first groups to receive the vaccine would be workers dealing with international arrivals and quarantine, frontline health workers, aged care and disability workers and those living in aged care or with a disability.

"We anticipate, optimistically, that we would hope to start the vaccination with 80,000 people a week," he said.

Australian coronavirus vaccine rollout brought forward, with first jabs to roll out next month

The rollout of a coronavirus vaccine in Australia will be brought forward, with the Prime Minister saying the first groups are expected to receive a jab in mid-to-late-February and a target of 4 million vaccinated by the end of March.

www.abc.net.au

 

[Port Power]

The quote above from WA AMA, conformes what a lot of us have been thinking, WA is using hard borders because they havent invested adequately in contract tracing and testing capablity and havent beefed up procedures at hospitals to be able to treat covid patients. It is a worrying as we are now a year into this thing.

WA has been performing contact tracing for other states for a very, very long time, so can certainly cope with its own state as well if necessary. I have been receiving check-in alarms every second day. WA also have an excellent, user-friendly COVID-19 tracing app. Remember the AMA is also a political creature and usually Liberal, and WA has a Labour government, so there is usually a bit of political bias in the President’s remarks. From everything I have heard from surgeons and physicians in both public and private hospitals, they will cope. Hospitals were “beefed up” to take Covid patients way back last year. I agree ambulance ramping is a problem, though.

WA’s hard border is not an excuse for lack of hospital facilities. It is to stop infected or possibly-infected people from entering the state and possibly starting a second wave. Infectious people travelling between NSW and VIC and starting another outbreak or three is an example.

 

[DC3]

That's a relief. I was beginning to wonder how I would fill up the days!

Well, there are a few of our AFFers who seem to be way ahead of you on that..

Edit: However, they would be mostly our entrenched glass-half-empty AFFers.

 

[Pushka]

With the new roll-out date for our vaccinations in Oz, now within a matter of weeks, hopefully this thread will have little to report as we all get our jabs.

Hopefully the thread can be closed by the end of this year. How about that then?

Geez. I said similar once before then SA went bat crazy (. Oops. That's one of my favourite expressions! )

 

[Lynda2475]

WA has been performing contact tracing for other states for a very, very long time, so can certainly cope with its own state as well if necessary.

WA offered but I know NSW didn not use them at all, I think possibly only SA and maybe Vic did? Until WA get a local case, their processes have yet to be pressure tested the way NSW and Vic have (and to a lesser extent SA, Qld and Tas).

Even in the most perfet systems breaches happen, as humans ae fallale. If WAs systems are so great they should be ready to deal with a case coming in from another state without needing to lock a whole state out.

 

[RooFlyer]

To be honest I don’t understand why all states didn’t have the same approach from the get-go and always assumed that travellers had at least one of the strains until proven otherwise.

unscheduled National Cabinet meeting tomorrow on this very topic ( the new, more virulent strain from the UK)

 

[Pushka]

unscheduled National Cabinet meeting tomorrow on this very topic ( the new, more virulent strain from the UK)

Rumour Of border closure to UK and Sth Africa but once again just kicking the can down the road as it will be across the world within weeks. Im wondering if this new threat was what brought on the vaccine timetable.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

I never claimed that patient zero for Northern Beaches has been found - that is the mystery case. But also irrelevant now,

You stated: There are only two active clusters - Northern Beaches (includes Croydon and Wollongong) So if not linked then why claim they are the one cluster?

Time does not obviate transmission links or lack thereof. They either have had a transmission link identified and become a merged cluster or they haven't.

By your logic the two current Melbourne Clusters are all just part of the Avalon Cluster.

In Vic 90% of the second wave came all from one family. They know this genomically. But all the subsequent clusters from it are still separate clusters because they do not know the the transmission links. This makes them separate clusters.

Unless the transmission links are known then Avalon , Croydon and Wollongong remain as separate clusters.