Australian Reports of the Virus Spread

[Tiki]

Or maybe a floating camp or two

I have been thinking this for awhile but afraid to mention it because cruise ships seem to be very controversial. Even go one step further. Use the ships to repatriate the stranded Aussies. I don't know how long it takes to get from Europe to Australia by sea with no port stops. They would have to quarantine the crew 14 days, tests. Bring everything they need for the whole voyage so no stopping needed. Not sure if they would need to refuel but surely it can be done with no contacts? Everyone stay in their cabins but free internet and movie channels. Medical staff on board and maybe one deck reserved for positive cases, move them there if they test positive. Not recommended for those in frail health and likely to need hospital care and risks should be explained and accepted. Must have negative tests 72 hours in advance and again on boarding.

Yes the voyage would suck, especially for those in indoor cabins. But it also sucks to be trapped overseas, no jobs, running up debts or destroying your savings on overpriced flights. Prices for a repatriation cruise determined by cabin location but I would expect it to be less than the current flights. Plus if the voyage lasted more than 14 days (or anchored off shore) they could be tested after 14 days and released home right off the ship. If it were me, I would prefer this option to get home at a more reasonable price then go through the torture of cancelled overpriced flights, hotel quarantine, all the uncertainty.

 

[Port Power]

WA Transition Plan:

From 6pm, Friday 5 February the following will come into effect:

Perth and Peel will enter into a post-lockdown transition period until 12.01am, Sunday 14 February. This allows the full 14-day incubation period to run its course
South West will return straight to pre-lockdown conditions.

The post-lockdown transition period for Perth and Peel includes:

• Wearing a mask when in public and while at work, unless exempt or for vigorous outdoor exercise
• All businesses can reopen, except for the casino and nightclubs
• 4 square metre capacity rule in place for businesses and venues, up to a maximum of 150
• 150-person capacity at all events including weddings, funerals and community sport
• Seated service only at hospitality venues
• Dancing only permitted at weddings and dance studios
• 20-person limit for private indoor and outdoor gatherings
• Visits to aged care and disability care facilities restricted to compassionate grounds
• Residential school and boarding facilities can resume with a COVID Safety Plan
• Only essential travel permitted in and out of the Perth and Peel regions to other parts of WA.
• Under the post-lockdown transition measures, schools in Perth and Peel will start from Monday 8 February. Masks are required to be worn by all school staff and secondary students. They are not required for primary school students.

Masks are also mandatory for staff at childcare facilities, as well as students and staff in higher education including TAFEs and universities.

Teaching staff are permitted to remove their mask if teaching at the front of the classroom to enable clear enunciation.

People who need to leave the Perth and Peel region for essential purposes must wear a mask at all times in other regions of WA, as per the rules in place for Perth and Peel.

Elective surgery at WA public hospitals will resume once the lockdown has ended, and people will be contacted directly to reschedule and rebook their appointments.

FIFO workers will once again be able to leave the Perth and Peel regions, but documentation will be required and they must follow strict health protocols.

Pre-lockdown requirements for the entire State still remain in place, including:

• WA’s controlled interstate border arrangements
• Mandatory contact registers for most WA businesses and venues
• Capacity restrictions for major venues
• Restrictions on travel to remote Aboriginal communities.
• Contact registers and SafeWA will continue as part of post-lockdown life. Currently, it is mandatory for most businesses to ensure a contact register is available for patrons.

From 6pm, Friday 5 February, it will also be mandatory for individuals to check-in at businesses required to keep a contact register. Individuals could face penalties if they fail to check in. As always, a common-sense approach will apply.

I’m pretty sure he said Peel can go back to pre lockdown conditions. (The Peel region includes rural cities south of Perth. It’s south of the Perth metropolitan region.)

 

[Lynda2475]

Thats the fine.

$50,000 if you don’t pay and are taken to court.

Having been in Perth over summer they needed a big stick to get the population behaving more COVIDSafe, but this is a stretch....

Agree but the fine wasnt the hilarious bit. Some very silly media questions i.e. how do you eat with a mask on? And some bizarre reasoning for restricting some activities.

Im sure once east coast reporters are awake and looking for something to promte they will find the zingers.

 

[Lynda2475]

I’m pretty sure he said Peel can go back to pre lockdown conditions. (The Peel region includes rural cities south of Perth. It’s south of the Perth metropolitan region.)

Perhaps but the official site says Perth and Peel (see link that Jezza posted), so if its wrong they need to correct the advice there.

ABC also confirms Peel is restricted here:

What are the latest post-lockdown rules for Perth?

Here's what you'll be allowed to do once the lockdown eases in Perth and the South West — and the things that are still off the menu, for now at least.

www.abc.net.au

 

[kpc]

So of all the recent quarantine hotel worker cases in Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and ?Adelaide with the dreaded highly contagious UK mutant virus, they haven't spread it to anyone else, even in their close household contacts? Soon the public is going to tire of all these lockdowns, border closures etc

 

[Lynda2475]

Prices for a repatriation cruise determined by cabin location but I would expect it to be less than the current flights.

I doubt this would be the case. Cruise ships require significantly more staff than an airplane (and dont earn freight revenue) and take much longer to position.

Youd have to get a ship to UK port, then ensure those needing to come home have freedom of movement to get to the port (as opposed to connecting via an airport), then pay sizeable crew for a couple of weeks. Unless you using one of those Medical Ships, there is no ICU in middle of ocean if someone gets very sick. Cost of feeding peopel at sea much higehr than in HQ.

 

[Must...Fly!]

So of all the recent quarantine hotel worker cases in Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and ?Adelaide with the dreaded highly contagious UK mutant virus, they haven't spread it to anyone else, even in their close household contacts? Soon the public is going to tire of all these lockdowns, border closures etc

Sooner rather than later hopefully

Politicians getting away with no accountability and bizarre claims not backed up by reality

 

[Lynda2475]

They are finally starting to realise surgical masks are ill fitting so inefective in high risk sitiations where virus may be airborne like HQ. Ive been saying anyone int he HQ program - drivers, cleaners, security, medical workers should have N95 and eye prtection for months.

All close contacts of Victorian hotel quarantine worker test negative for COVID-19

No new COVID-19 cases have been linked to a Victorian hotel quarantine worker who contracted the virus as the state records three infections in overseas arrivals.

www.abc.net.au

 

[jakeseven7]

So of all the recent quarantine hotel worker cases in Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and ?Adelaide with the dreaded highly contagious UK mutant virus, they haven't spread it to anyone else, even in their close household contacts? Soon the public is going to tire of all these lockdowns, border closures etc

Some journalists are starting to ask if the strain actually is 'that' more contagious.... It seems to have been only in countries overridden by the virus where it is rampaging out of control anyway because there are so many cases.... is the science conclusive that it actually is and in a scenario where there isn't any of it really?

They are finally starting to realise surgical masks are ill fitting so inefective in high risk sitiations where virus may be airborne like HQ. Ive been saying anyone int he HQ program - drivers, cleaners, security, medical workers should have N95 and eye prtection for months.

All close contacts of Victorian hotel quarantine worker test negative for COVID-19

No new COVID-19 cases have been linked to a Victorian hotel quarantine worker who contracted the virus as the state records three infections in overseas arrivals.

www.abc.net.au

Hey, let WA catch up please they are only just making a mask mandatory in HQ now

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has revealed the outbreak at a Brisbane quarantine hotel was the result of COVID-19 spreading through the corridors.

A report into how a cleaner at the Grand Chancellor hotel contracted the highly-infectious UK strain of the virus is due to be released today.

“This virus is actually just circulating in the corridors so it’s a wake-up call, it’s happening in Western Australia, Victoria and Queensland, so we’ve got to do more – our quarantine is our last line of defence when it comes to protecting Australians,” Ms Palaszczuk told Nine’s Today.

She said the report will make recommendations about hotel quarantine guests wearing masks when they open their doors to pick up linen or food. There is also speculation that guests could have a strict limit to how many times they can open their doors in a day.

 

[dajop]

She said the report will make recommendations about hotel quarantine guests wearing masks when they open their doors to pick up linen or food.

That is exactly what I did when in HQ in Sydney - had a mask hanging on the door and used it when opening it - (although I didn’t when in HQ in Singapore as there was an atrium - not rooms - opposite and the rooms were much more spaced out).

 

[jeza]

I’m pretty sure he said Peel can go back to pre lockdown conditions. (The Peel region includes rural cities south of Perth. It’s south of the Perth metropolitan region.)

@Port Power It's the South West that will go back to pre-lockdown conditions. @Lynda2475 is correct Peel will stay on the same level as Perth itself.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has revealed the outbreak at a Brisbane quarantine hotel was the result of COVID-19 spreading through the corridors.

A report into how a cleaner at the Grand Chancellor hotel contracted the highly-infectious UK strain of the virus is due to be released today.

“This virus is actually just circulating in the corridors so it’s a wake-up call, it’s happening in Western Australia, Victoria and Queensland, so we’ve got to do more – our quarantine is our last line of defence when it comes to protecting Australians,” Ms Palaszczuk told Nine’s Today.

She said the report will make recommendations about hotel quarantine guests wearing masks when they open their doors to pick up linen or food. There is also speculation that guests could have a strict limit to how many times they can open their doors in a day.

As I posted a while back all those large open doors onto the balconies at that hotel while good for fresh-air, completely ruin any hope of the HVAC only controlling how the air moves.

The wind and air pressure (think on how an airplane wing works) from outside will cause air to be forced in when the conditions are ripe to do so. So any opened door to corridors, or even just doors that are not airtight seals will see air from the room mixing into the corridor.

 

[Lynda2475]

19 Days of no community cases for NSW today.



And in further good news:

All five people in NSW who were staying at a Victorian quarantine hotel at the same time as COVID-19 was transmitted between fellow guests in adjacent rooms have returned negative test results.

“All five of these people will continue to isolate for the full 14 days since they were at the hotel and will be tested again at the end of that time,” Dr McAnulty said.

 

[jakeseven7]

Almost all of the 500 AO visitors put back into quarantine to be retested have their results back - all negative so far...

Lazy mutant virus.....

Real number of tests from VIC yesterday was 22,500 as well.

----

‘A big community response and no new positives’: Victorian Premier pleased with results of testing​

​

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says there are “very good signs” that a potential outbreak from hotel quarantine had been caught early after the state recorded no new locally acquired cases.

​

Mr Andrews said an additional 8000 tests had been processed since midnight, so the real number of COVID-19 tests taken and processed from Thursday was around 22,500.

On the COVID-positive Noble Park man, Mr Andrews said 16 out of 17 close social contacts had now returned a negative result.

As it happened: Victoria hotel quarantine worker’s close contacts all test negative; WA reopens after snap lockdown

Investigations continue into the infection of a hotel worker in Melbourne as Western Australia lifts its lockdown.

www.theage.com.au

 

[oznflfan]

Most (and hopefully) likely, we've only got 12 more months of HQ issues. Most of Australia, lots of entry point countries into Australia should all be vaccinated as best we can and hopefully in sufficient numbers, plus reduced transmissability of the virus on very early data is what Scomo and Brendan want.

Best case scenario vaccinated travellers from for example UK just fly and as 2019. Maybe Howard Springs will be sufficient for Australia's total HQ need with non vaccinated travellers or families (if children continue not to be vaccinated). Some time later HQ may not be required if total herd immunity is held and no severe ICU nor deaths.

 

[Flying mermaid]

So of all the recent quarantine hotel worker cases in Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and ?Adelaide with the dreaded highly contagious UK mutant virus, they haven't spread it to anyone else, even in their close household contacts? Soon the public is going to tire of all these lockdowns, border closures etc

there was some research done recently in the UK that came up with 56% more transmissible. However it was based on mathematical models and the increase in the R factor. I just look at one example I know of - Dr FM's flatmate in London. In the first lockdown he did all the right things. Stayed in the unit (driving Dr FM bonkers ), only went out once a day for exercise and shopping and very briefly. That was the lockdown where everyone stayed home and came out once a week to clap for the NHS. At Christmas he went home, caught Covid and spread it to numerous friends and family as he was out visiting (against the rules).

You have to wonder how much Covid fatigue and social factors have contributed to the higher R factor and how much it is actually that incredibly contagious.

 

[Pushka]

In SA one international traveller only today. Plus a South Africa strain found here.

 

[Lynda2475]

SA Premier Steven Marshall accounced:

• South Australia has removed the hard border with Western Australia, effective immediately.
• Travellers entering SA from any of the hotspot areas of Greater Perth, Peel or the South West region will still have to take a test on days one, five and 12, and self-isolate until the first test comes back negative.
• Anyone who has already travelled to South Australia from Western Australia, and is currently self-quarantining, can immediately leave quarantine, provided their first test has come back negative.
• The exemption doesn’t apply to anyone who has been at the Sheraton Hotel in Perth. They must stay in quarantine.
• More than 1,300 travellers from Western Australia have been quarantining in SA.

 

[jakeseven7]

Border restrictions for WA travellers to be eased in SA, ACT​

South Australia and the ACT will remove their border restrictions with Western Australia today.

In a statement, the ACT government said people who had recently been in Perth, the Peel and South West regions of WA and had been instructed to quarantine in the ACT would be able to leave quarantine from 6pm AEDT.

As it happened: Victoria hotel quarantine worker’s close contacts all test negative; WA reopens after snap lockdown

Investigations continue into the infection of a hotel worker in Melbourne as Western Australia lifts its lockdown.

www.theage.com.au