Australian Reports of the Virus Spread

[Lynda2475]

High Test rates considering no active community clusters:

 

[drron]

The Melbourne lockdown has had an effect in Launceston.Two restaurants that let people come in without checking in on the Tassie app last week have insisted on it this week.

 

[Lynda2475]

My Dad told me he wont be shopping at his local Woolworths anymore because they took all the QR codes down last week, meaning no way to record that you have been there. He had already stopped shopping at Aldi who never had codes at all. I guess Coles in the winner since they have QR at all entrances and checkouts (and for some reason stuck on the freezer doors).

QR usage needs to be enforced more its been falling in lots of places.

"The number of Safe WA app scans fell 30 per cent from about 2.5 million on the first Saturday after Perth's three-day lockdown last month, to about 1.7 million last Saturday.

Use of the free app, which helps authorities find people who have been in close contact with someone who has COVID-19, appears to have steadily dropped since the lockdown ended on April 27."

Use of Safe WA app plummets amid warnings about highly transmissible COVID strain

As the state's Chief Health Officer warns a single case of the Indian strain of COVID-19 "could have significant consequences", the Safe WA app records a significant drop in use.

www.abc.net.au

Maybe a little fine blitz is required to strengthen the behavior. Get the payment information (credit/debit card) from all tier 1 and tier 2 venues, cross check against the government check-in app. Anyone who was there but didn't check in gets a fine. The fine revenue can be used to fund the support payments to impacted businesses.

 

[Lynda2475]

From ABC Blog:

Why is this a state-wide lockdown?​

Acting Premier James Merlino was asked why it was a state-wide lockdown. He said the number of locations dictated that it had to be state-wide. Professor Sutton was asked for more exact reasons.

"I understand the reflections of regional Victorians who are rightly saying they have not had cases for many months — for some local government areas, for over a year. The reality is if we carved out a part of regional Victoria and said no restrictions in that place, that's where everyone from Melbourne would go. And that's when everyone would introduce this virus into previously unaffected areas. There are operational considerations about how you stop some of the potential movement"

Is this really the case though, or just a case of not wanting to introduce roadblocks to police it happening?

During second wave, regional Victorians were not subject to the same restrictions as Greater Melbourne - what is different this time? WA locked down greater Perth without locking down the whole state, Qld locked down Greater Brisbane without locking down the Gold Coast (and rest of Qld).

I'm not a support of lockdowns, and locking down for less than an incubation period seems pointless but if you are going to do it, make it targeted.

 

[mannej]

My Dad told me he wont be shopping at his local Woolworths anymore because they took all the QR codes down last week, meaning no way to record that you have been there. He had already stopped shopping at Aldi who never had codes at all. I guess Coles in the winner since they have QR at all entrances and checkouts (and for some reason stuck on the freezer doors).

QR usage needs to be enforced more its been falling in lots of places.

"The number of Safe WA app scans fell 30 per cent from about 2.5 million on the first Saturday after Perth's three-day lockdown last month, to about 1.7 million last Saturday.

Use of the free app, which helps authorities find people who have been in close contact with someone who has COVID-19, appears to have steadily dropped since the lockdown ended on April 27."

Use of Safe WA app plummets amid warnings about highly transmissible COVID strain

As the state's Chief Health Officer warns a single case of the Indian strain of COVID-19 "could have significant consequences", the Safe WA app records a significant drop in use.

www.abc.net.au

Maybe a little fine blitz is required to strengthen the behavior. Get the payment information (credit/debit card) from all tier 1 and tier 2 venues, cross check against the government check-in app. Anyone who was there but didn't check in gets a fine. The fine revenue can be used to fund the support payments to impacted businesses.

Funny that, as over here in WA the self check out counters at Woolies as you if you have checked in via the Safe WA app, however the self check out counters at Coles do not have the same prompt.

 

[Must...Fly!]

Yes that is where people would go.

Well, what are you as a government doing to fix that?

Governing is not easy and it is not meant to be. That's why we have a public service and politicians, to solve problems that the community cannot solve themselves.

My partner's parents live in regional Gippsland and are god knows how many hundreds of kilometres from the nearest case. They're locked down and can't go for a scheduled interstate holiday as a result. Sad really.

 

[Lynda2475]

From SMH Blog:

NSW Health says 28 people considered close contacts after attending Victorian venues of concern, visited by positive COVID-19 cases, have returned negative test results. It said the 28 close contacts will still isolate for 14 days from their exposure date. They’ll be tested again before the end of their isolation period.

Anyone in NSW who has been in Victoria since May 12 is encouraged to regularly check the venue list and call NSW Health immediately on 1800 943 553 if they find they were at any of the locations within the relevant times.

People who left Victoria for NSW after 4pm on Thursday are required to abide by the southern state’s seven-day lockdown restrictions, currently enforced until 11.59pm on June 3.

The border is not closed but travel to Victoria is strongly discouraged. For border community residents on the NSW side, for example in Albury, the stay-at-home requirements only apply if they have been outside the mapped border bubble into Victoria since 4pm on Thursday.

Australia news LIVE: Victoria begins lockdown as state records four more local cases; NSW Labor leader Jodi McKay expected to resign

Victorians are waking up to their first day of a seven-day lockdown, NSW is issuing stay-at-home orders to people who cross the border and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has rejected claims he bungled the UK’s pandemic response.

www.smh.com.au

 

[mannej]

From ABC Blog:

Why is this a state-wide lockdown?​

Acting Premier James Merlino was asked why it was a state-wide lockdown. He said the number of locations dictated that it had to be state-wide. Professor Sutton was asked for more exact reasons.

"I understand the reflections of regional Victorians who are rightly saying they have not had cases for many months — for some local government areas, for over a year. The reality is if we carved out a part of regional Victoria and said no restrictions in that place, that's where everyone from Melbourne would go. And that's when everyone would introduce this virus into previously unaffected areas. There are operational considerations about how you stop some of the potential movement"

Is this really the case though, or just a case of not wanting to introduce roadblocks to police it happening?

During second wave, regional Victorians were not subject to the same restrictions as Greater Melbourne - what is different this time? WA locked down greater Perth without locking down the whole state, Qld locked down Greater Brisbane without locking down the Gold Coast (and rest of Qld).

I'm not a support of lockdowns, and locking down for less than an incubation period seems pointless but if you are going to do it, make it targeted.

With regards to the WA example, it is quite a poor one. The messaging on the Friday was that the roadblocks would not be implemented until that midnight, so of course everyone who had booked accommodation for down south left under the blessing of the Premier and Health Minister. They later backtracked on the Saturday by stating that those who had been in the Perth metro area had to isolate regardless of their location, which the compliance from all reports was not high.

 

[Lynda2475]

Yes that is where people would go.

Didn't stop these two:

Police are currently speaking to two teenage girls who hitchhiked from Victoria into South Australia and then boarded a school bus.

Police said the two girls used different vehicles to hitchhike into the state and travelled to see another girl in Goolwa — more than 200 kilometres from the Victorian border.

The trio then travelled on a school bus from Goolwa with other students to Victor Harbor High School this morning.

'I just think it's really selfish': Parents of students on SA bus boarded by missing Victorian teens vent frustration

Two teenage girls reporting missing from Victoria have been found travelling on a school bus in South Australia, after crossing the border overnight. It is believed the two girls hitchhiked in several different vehicles to travel to see a friend in Goolwa, south of Adelaide.

www.abc.net.au

 

[MooTime]

Funny that, as over here in WA the self check out counters at Woolies as you if you have checked in via the Safe WA app, however the self check out counters at Coles do not have the same prompt.

I noticed the other day at the Woolies in Southland Shopping Centre (Vic) have QR codes at the self-check out, they weren't previously there.
Good idea.
Haven't been to Coles last few days to compare.

Having them at supermarket entry hasn't worked, but while you stand there & scan your items I think works better, even at non self checkout, little more convenient.

 

[Lynda2475]

Having them at supermarket entry hasn't worked, but while you stand there & scan your items I think works better, even at non self checkout, little more convenient.

I think it depends on the layout of the store.

At my local coles all trolleys are stored outside, the QR codes are spaced out every metre or so along the wall you have to walk past to get a trolley, plus on the entry the doors, the sign above where the baskets are inside, the freezer doors as well as on the glass at the regular checkout and at the self serve checkouts. Plenty of places to scan, I always do it when I go to collect a trolley (or at the door if i dont need a trolley/basket).

I just feel that as supermarkets are the busiest of all the stores, they ought to be enforcing them to display the state based QR codes and periodically auditing them.

In the early days when there were strict quotas on customer numbers, my local coles had a staff member at the entrance (only one way in and one way out at my local) using a clicker to count entries and exits, making sure you had a mask and making sure you checked in. That didnt last too long though.

 

[mannej]

I know my local Kmart still has a clicker at the entrance, but the adjacent Coles does not any longer. I am not surprised of the reports stating that the compliance levels are dropping.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Just to clarify on the two cases with known long symptomatic periods before positive test.

The case with 6 days symptomatic was reported yesterday.

The one who was today reported as 12 days symptomatic is Case 5 who was originally reported as 10 days. The period has been revised to 12 days following further follow up interviews with Case 5. Case 5 is still the first known case in the current cluster from which the various transmission chains have also all so far been traced back to.



There is still no direct link to the Wollert Man.

 

[oz_mark]

In the early days when there were strict quotas on customer numbers, my local coles had a staff member at the entrance (only one way in and one way out at my local) using a clicker to count entries and exits, making sure you had a mask and making sure you checked in. That didnt last too long though.

I asked my local Coles about that, and they said they never got anywhere near the limits that were allowed in-store, so they stopped.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

I asked my local Coles about that, and they said they never got anywhere near the limits that were allowed in-store, so they stopped.

Yes, unlike nightclubs, supermarkets simply do not get that crowded unless there is a full-blown panic rush on.

 

[dajop]

Maybe all the QR coding would be less important if the government had driven improvements to and the wider adoption of the Covid Safe App, not perfect but another chink in the armour. By way of reference the equivalent app the CovidSafe here in Singapore, on my phone shows the number of "bluetooth exchanges" every day. Before we had our "semi lockdown" I was averaging 2400 such exchanges a day, now down to 870 a day on average.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

Where is QR or COVIDSafe mandatory around the country? I recall SA, QR is still mandatory at every premises

 

[VPS]

Where is QR or COVIDSafe mandatory around the country? I recall SA, QR is still mandatory at every premises

Compulsory in every venue or shop in SA. Small chocolate shop in the Adelaide Hills was checked by the police a couple of weeks ago and fined $5000 because they weren't enforcing check in. Cops came back a couple of hours later and found another person not checked in so got another $5k fine.

 

[jakeseven7]

Yet again Western Sydney on alert

----------------

Vigilance urged after virus fragments found in west-Sydney sewage​

NSW Health are urging NSW residents around Homebush to be mindful, as COVID-19 virus fragments were located in sewage.

There are roughly 40,500 people in the catchment area of concern.

Victoria's lockdown 'very different' from last year's, Greg Hunt says

The Federal Health Minister hails the "early" lockdown in Victoria and high testing rate, saying the low COVID case numbers today provide hope for the state.

www.abc.net.au

 

[henrus]

Maybe all the QR coding would be less important if the government had driven improvements to and the wider adoption of the Covid Safe App, not perfect but another chink in the armour.

There was never going to be 100% take-up of the Bluetooth tracking covid safe app. Singapore has been more successful as you basically now need the tracking app to enter most buildings/shops etc.