Australian Reports of the Virus Spread

[Lynda2475]

its almost like we have an UNOFFICIAL National Cabinet working in the background

Well the Fed dont agree and NSW doesnt agree, and WA never agrees on anything so not quite national. Tas were probably getting heat as to why they had 24 LGAs when 3 other states/territories only had 10. And Queensland still have a higher number.

 

[jakeseven7]

Well the Fed dont agree and NSW doesnt agree, and WA never agrees on anything so not quite national. Tas were probably getting heat as to why they had 24 LGAs when 3 other states/territories only had 10. And Queensland still have a higher number.

I think we all just have to forget WA and wait until they learn how to read and count before re-engaging them

 

[MEL_Traveller]

They also wont be vaccinated in the next few weeks as you stated. Vaccinations start in mid Feb, but those vulnerable peopel are widely distributed and not all will receive vaccines in Feb.

If only those groups are vaccinated, the virus will still circulate and states which lack confidence will steep slam borders shut instead of trusting their systems.

I think you are being overly optimistic to think that completion of 1b and 2 will see WA and Vic to keep domestic borders open when there is a case elsewhere, they are both using hard borders as a political tool to stay visible in the news, they love the attention too much. They arent transparent re decision critieria, i dont trust that they will trust vaccinating a small portion of the population is enough to open up.

Time will tell.

I said the vaccine is a few weeks away, not that everyone will be vaccinated in a few weeks. It's an important milestone because it potentially signals the way out.

If you are referring to contact tracing as 'a system'... pre-vaccine it is just one layer of protection. But the major flaw is that it doesn't even start to work until the virus is already out there. By then it's too late if someone infected has already been to aged care.

 

[drron]

Well the Fed dont agree and NSW doesnt agree, and WA never agrees on anything so not quite national. Tas were probably getting heat as to why they had 24 LGAs when 3 other states/territories only had 10. And Queensland still have a higher number.

Again unlike other states the only high risk area of recent times according to Tasmania was the northern beaches unlike all the other states and territories who had those LGAs as red zones/hotspots so no one from there allowed at all.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

If NSW has no hotspots/red-zones and everything is fine... why are inside gatherings limited to five?

 

[drron]

If NSW has no hotspots/red-zones and everything is fine... why are inside gatherings limited to five?

All the other states who pretend to be virus free still have some restrictions in place.
Declared hotspots are an indication for local lockdown and border restrictions to that area.

There are many limitations that are still more severe in Victoria than they are in NSW.Why?

 

[Pushka]

From midnight in SA we can have 200 people in private homes which bodes well for a friends 60th. Except she has to have a Covid safe plan, a Covid Marshall, and a unique QR code for her home which we will all have to scan, and not have more than 1 person per 2 sq metres. She has a large home so no issues there but can't imagine who will stay sober enough to be the Covid Marshall

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Media Release
21 January 2021

Salient parts:


Victoria has recorded one new case of coronavirus since yesterday in a person in hotel quarantine. The case is a man aged in his 40s.
There are no new locally acquired cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) in Victoria.

This is the 15th consecutive day where Victoria has recorded no new locally acquired cases of coronavirus (COVID-19).

The number of active cases in Victoria is 34, made up of one locally acquired case linked to the Black Rock restaurant cluster, which is a decrease of one since yesterday, and 33 cases in travellers in hotel quarantine, an increase of one since yesterday.




No mention of the AO and so presumably not linked to that event

 

[MEL_Traveller]

All the other states who pretend to be virus free still have some restrictions in place.
Declared hotspots are an indication for local lockdown and border restrictions to that area.

There are many limitations that are still more severe in Victoria than they are in NSW.Why?

It's been a long time since we had a limit of five in victoria! Our main restriction now is wearing a mask in high density settings. From the way NSW was talking I thought they would be restriction-free! If there are limits of five, what does it say about contract tracing?

Finding out that there are restrictions of five suggests there is health advice that spread, or the need to trace spread, is real. If that's real, do we want movement across the border?

 

[jakeseven7]

It appears WA has lost their CHO again after he went missing for 101 days.... he’s MIA again! They should slap a ankle bracelet on this guy!

Gold stars from WA to VIC though, my you are special

——

WA is still waiting on health advice over when to drop hard border with Queensland​

West Australian Premier Mark McGowan is "very pleased" with the progress of Queensland's COVID-19 control but is still waiting to receive health advice on when he could drop hard border measures.

The Greater Brisbane area has gone 10 days without a community case and 14 days since the last positive case linked to their recent outbreak.

"I think New South Wales has had five or so days with zero cases so has a while to go. Victoria has obviously done very well with their track and tracing" he said, applauding the quick response from the Victorian government to the cases seeded from Sydney.

"We’ll obviously wait for the health advice on all of those and make announcements in the near future."

Queensland and NSW are currently considered 'medium risk' states by WA, which means only exempted travellers are allowed to travel to the west.

WA still waiting on health advice over when to drop hard border with Queensland

It has been 10 days since the last community COVID-19 case in Queensland and 14 days since there was a positive case related to a Brisbane hotel cluster.

www.watoday.com.au

 

[drron]

It's been a long time since we had a limit of five in victoria! Our main restriction now is wearing a mask in high density settings. From the way NSW was talking I thought they would be restriction-free! If there are limits of five, what does it say about contract tracing?

Finding out that there are restrictions of five suggests there is health advice that spread, or the need to trace spread, is real. If that's real, do we want movement across the border?

Absolutely yes. We need to learn how to live with this virus.Never going to happen with the bunch of trigger happy Premiers and Chief Ministers.
Time to believe the science and save actions for real hot spots.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Absolutely yes. We need to learn how to live with this virus.Never going to happen with the bunch of trigger happy Premiers and Chief Ministers.
Time to believe the science and save actions for real hot spots.

Agree we need to learn to live with the virus. But how about waiting until the vaccine is here? It's so close now it seems unnecessary to pre-empt outcomes.

At the beginning of the pandemic many were saying there would be vaccine for 4 or 5 years, so we had to 'act now' and learn to live with it. Well, that turned out to be hasty. Now we have an vaccine program about to start but still people are calling to 'act now'.

At the end of the day the management of the pandemic is a mix of science and wellbeing. That's what our politicians are elected and paid to manage.

 

[drron]

Though the hotspot definition was put forward by the CMO and an expert committee who are more knowledgeable than you or I on this matter.We should believe them.
Unfortunately your belief in the vaccine may turn out to be way too optimistic.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Though the hotspot definition was put forward by the CMO and an expert committee who are more knowledgeable than you or I on this matter.We should believe them.
Unfortunately your belief in the vaccine may turn out to be way too optimistic.

Agree... the vaccine may turn out to be a fizzer. But we should at least wait until that happens. What if the vaccine is a success? How do we justify the potential damage done by not waiting a few months? Aside from serious illness, it's the tens of thousands of hours wasted by those needing to be tested.

The CMO and expert panel can offer suggestions. But ultimately the states are responsible for health and wellbeing.

 

[zenyattamondatta]

The CMO and expert panel can offer suggestions. But ultimately the states are responsible for health and wellbeing.

ROFL.

 

[Flashback]

Yes Hong Kong require 21 days, I have an ex-pat friend who was in Scotland in December, he had to holiday for 21 days in Dubai after leaving the UK, just to be allowed ot fly inot HK and is now on day 3 of his 21 HQ in HK.

But those quarantone rules are for international arrivals and those tetsing poistive, not for whole cities of people who dont have the virus and havent been a close contact of nayone who has.



This hasnt proven true in NSW with the outbreaks since Vic reintroduced local transmission to NSW in July. We didnt see wide scale spread into regional areas of NSW. Hell thousands of Sydneysiders were in Byrn and surrounds over Xmas and there wasnt a major outbreak there.

NB cases did infect people outside the NB, but quality tracking saw NSW Health keep those numbers low - no periods of 3 days with over 30 cases anywhere outside the Northern beaches. The other states and territories need to trust they can also control cases when they arise, without puttting millions into lockdowns. You have more tools than clsoing a border.

Singapore is moving to (or already has) a 21 day quarantine period I believe.

Perhaps we need 2 more threads? 1 for vaccine chat and 1 for quarantine periods (around the world), that way this thread could be just to discuss cases of the virus occurring in Australia.

 

[TomVexille]

From midnight in SA we can have 200 people in private homes which bodes well for a friends 60th. Except she has to have a Covid safe plan, a Covid Marshall, and a unique QR code for her home which we will all have to scan, and not have more than 1 person per 2 sq metres. She has a large home so no issues there but can't imagine who will stay sober enough to be the Covid Marshall

Airtasker?

 

[OATEK]

Agree... the vaccine may turn out to be a fizzer. But we should at least wait until that happens.

We are talking 6-9 months at least here - just look what has happened in the last 9 months. Can we really sustain another 9 like that? Not just health wise, but economically, mentally!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

We are talking 6-9 months at least here - just look what has happened in the last 9 months. Can we really sustain another 9 like that? Not just health wise, but economically, mentally!

I don't know if it will be that long for 1a and 1b? I guess that's the decision and balance that will need to be made. Can we start to open internal borders if group 1a/b is vaccinated?

 

[antycbr]

I don't know if it will be that long for 1a and 1b? I guess that's the decision and balance that will need to be made. Can we start to open internal borders if group 1a/b is vaccinated?

Borders are reopening to a large extent now that Sydney case numbers are dropping. Nothing to do with the vaccine.

However if one case is too much for some of our premiers, we have to wait until everyone is vaccinated...