Australian Reports of the Virus Spread

[lovetravellingoz]

COVID-19 (Coronavirus) - Latest COVID-19 case locations and alerts in NSW

www.health.nsw.gov.au

 

[jakeseven7]

Breaking: Sydney Centrelink visited by positive case as NSW mystery cases grows to 13​

NSW Health has issued an urgent alert for a Centrelink and a number of trains used by a positive coronavirus case "while potentially infectious".

The department is asking anyone who was at Centrelink Auburn on Thursday, January 14 between 3pm and 4.15pm to monitor for COVID-19 symptoms.

"And, if they occur, get tested immediately and self-isolate until a negative result is received," it said on Saturday night.

The public health alert comes after one new locally acquired case was recorded in New South Wales on Saturday – a man aged in his 40s from western Sydney.

Investigations into the source of the infection are underway but have not found the source of the case yet.

A number of train services have also been added to the watch list.

Follow our live coronavirus updates

Russian-born New Zealand tennis player Artem Sitak has delivered some much needed perspective to his fellow players complaining about hotel quarantine arrangements ahead of the Australian Open.

www.news.com.au

 

[lovetravellingoz]

 

[lovetravellingoz]

 

[SydneySwan]

TND today;

Charter operator: Government won't let us bring Aussies home

The Australian government has refused to let stranded Australians board chartered flights that are being used to collect foreigners stuck here.

thenewdaily.com.au

 

[kamchatsky]

TND today;

Charter operator: Government won't let us bring Aussies home

The Australian government has refused to let stranded Australians board chartered flights that are being used to collect foreigners stuck here.

thenewdaily.com.au

It wouldn't matter given it would count against the caps anyway?

 

[lovetravellingoz]

It wouldn't matter given it would count against the caps anyway?

Exactly.

The two guys are running a business and naturally want to make more money.

However if they use up some of the cap then others cannot.

 

[Lynda2475]

6 Cases in NSW - 5 family members of the guy from yesterday and one close family friend.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

So a few points of concern from the information released today by NSW Health.

Not least of which is that the source of this new cluster is not yet linked by transmission to other known cases.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

I wish the consequences of a case leaking out were not so severe for everyone because part of me is fully expecting it.

Well hopefully that expectation will not become a reality.

However it is I think worth noting that Covid 19 control expertise, measures and resources are vastly different to what they were back in July.

Since Vic DHHS adopted the two ring containment method in October, plus with enhanced contact tracing as well as various community measures which have varied (mask wearing etc) every new outbreak has been reduced to zero cases within a fortnight and mainly within a week, and also that no outbreak has grown out of control unlike at the start of the second wave in Victoria.

• Kilmore
• Shepparton
• Uniting Age Care - Preston
• Box Hill Hospital Cluster #2
• SE Community
• North-metro Regional Community (which was the several EPIC related clusters linked by proximity, not transmission in all cases)
• Avalon returned traveller (teenage girl = 0 local transmission)
• Black Rock

were all swiftly controlled.

With respect to hotel quarantine and isolation arrangements Vic DHHS probably now has the strictest protocols in Australia, some of which have now also been adopted in other jurisdictions.

In addition since HQ for international arrivals was resumed at significant level (though a small number of international arrivals with compassionate exemptions did still arrive during the second wave) all HQ workers have had daily testing. A practice now adopted in the other stats.

Vic also tests all arriving aircrew and any positive cases have to go into isolation. ie One of the three positive AO cases is in isolation at a health hotel which has higher standards of control.

Also in Vic any positive case is moved to a health hotel and not left in a quarantine hotel. As for example at the Grand Chancellor where positive cases were isolated in the same building as other returned travellers and where transmission resulted.

Plus other measures such as wastewater monitoring.

As the virus is highly transmissible and as humans do make errors or just deliberately choose to breach a protocol, or equipment may fail etc, a new outbreak in Victoria is most likely inevitable sooner or later, whether that be from international sources (air or sea) or from interstate, but Vic is now in a much better position than it was to detect and control any such leakage, and to also minimise the possibly of such a leakage in the first place.

 

[Lynda2475]

Just come back from the supermarket, everyone in my area is rocking a mask.

Bumped into a Doctor (used to be my parents Doctor many moons ago) whose practice is in South West Sydney. He commented to me how excellent the mask wearing and social distancing is in inner west, and lamented that in Fairfield council area, only about 50% are wearing masks and that the biggest cohort not complying are younger men aged 25-45. He visited someone in Auburn area earlier in the week and said even less people masked up there.

This why NSW Health are concerned about the Berala cluster, its in an area where majority of residents are from the same part of the world as the people in the Victorian second wave who broke stay at home orders, went to work with symptoms and exceeded household gathering limits.

Testing rates are excellent in the NB, lower north shore, eastern suburbs and inner west, but not at all good in the western and south western suburbs where needed most.

There is a serious lack of community concern in SW/W Sydney, NSW Health needs to find a better way to incentivise more people to be tested there as appealing based on being able to lift restrictions (which they are ignoring anyway) and the greater good isnt resonating with those communities.

I worry there is a reluctance to enforce mask wearing more visibly by police for fear of beign called racist.

 

[Lynda2475]

HQ for international arrivals was resumed at significant level

Bit a a reach to call "significant, Vic still accepting less than 50% of levels they were at start of July. Since resuming international arrivals, they have been taking fewer than smaller states like WA and Qld, and under 25% of what NSW was until this new"4 week cap.

A lot of the improved practices in Vic have actually been copied from other states.

also in Vic any positive case is moved to a health hotel and not left in a quarantine hotel

A prartice that has been the norm in NSW since July and that SA introduced when the Parafiled cluster hit. As far as Im aware of those taking regualr international arrivals only WA and Qld werent doing this alredy.

There was a great editorial on ABC tv news last few days about the separation at Howard Springs - although a worry that military and diplomatic arrivals have been staying in Darwin hotels instead.

Plus other measures such as wastewater monitoring

Again this has been happening in NSW and Qld for many months.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Again this has been happening in NSW and Qld for many months.

I didn't say it was new. Just that it was one of the many measures now used.

Post automatically merged: Jan 17, 2021

Bit a a reach to call "significant,

1120 a week to me is resuming at significant level compared to the 1 or so per week compassionate exemption international cases that were occurring in the period prior to that.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

A lot of the improved practices in Vic have actually been copied from other states.

Yes the CHO's share a lot of information and practices. But some were adopted by Vic first, and some of these are not yet adopted elsewhere (dedicated workforce, and isolation of all positive aircrew).

ie Daily testing of all staff including transmission workers. Testing all aircrew


The intended point of my post #15,336 however is that practices in Victoria have substantially improved. It is not having a go at any other jurisdiction.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

The challenge is getting this cohort to be honest about everywhere they have been so they can find the overlap with other known cases.

Indeed.

 

[Flying mermaid]

Genomic results are expected this afternoon, fully expect that will show is part of Berala cluster. The challenge is getting this cohort to be honest about everywhere they have been so they can find the overlap with other known cases.

The CHO at the presser today was very complimentary about the new cases and said they had gone above and beyond to cooperate, getting extra serology done and doing everything that was asked of them.

 

[Lynda2475]

The CHO at the presser today was very complimentary about the new cases and said they had gone above and beyond to cooperate, getting extra serology done and doing everything that was asked of them.

I think once people test positive, they tend to comply with requests for blood tests etc. Its those that know they have been at exposure venues but didnt sign-in and are avoiding being tested that are the worry.

A cop friend of mine said beause culturally many in the area arent supposed to consume alcohol (but actually do) they may not admit to being at BWS (or similar), whilst being honest about other movements such as PT and Supermarkets.

Given the Berala cluster, testing numbers in coughberland area should be the majority of NSW testing numbers - if the community was concerned they would have come out in the numbers that Northern Beaches did (especially since also a lot more densly populated than NB).

 

[Lynda2475]

Testing rates over last 4 weeks:






Compared with places outside Western/South West:

 

[Lynda2475]

SMH reports:

Victorian Liberal senator Sarah Henderson has attacked the state government for preventing Victorians returning home and resuming work.

“Victorians must not be arbitrarily locked out of their homes,” Senator Henderson said on Sunday afternoon.

"I am deeply concerned about the arbitrary manner in which the Victorian government is preventing Victorians caught in ‘red zones’ from returning home.

"Those trapped in a red zone are effectively being locked out of their home, separated from family and frequently prevented from working. This is causing very significant economic and mental health damage. This restriction may also breach the Victorian Charter of Human Rights.

"While the risk of community transmission must be minimised, why are Victorians caught in a red zone not being given the opportunity to take a COVID test? Surely if a person tests negative he or she should be granted a permit to travel back to Victoria?

"In light of increasing concerns about the lockout of Victorians, I call on Premier Daniel Andrews to urgently review the traffic light system."

 

[Bundy Bear]

100% masks compliance while doing my grocery shopping today.