Australian Reports of the Virus Spread

[Pushka]

I couldn't seem to find an appropriate thread to post this in the Covid board so maybe worth starting one on Australian cases now it's here to stay. Mods feel free to combine with another appropriate thread.

Just now SA has another report - Conductor and violist Brett Dean, who was due to play at this year’s Adelaide Festival, has been diagnosed with coronavirus. He has just returned from Taiwan and has had a cough but had continued rehearsals with the Adelaide Festival Performers.
That brings SA to 8, three previously and all of whom are recovered (a couple from China and 1 from Princess Diamond) and just this week, two women one from Italy and one from Iran, a baby from Iran and now two men from Taiwan. Maybe Taiwan should have been included in the ban from China? I think my numbers are correct but Adelaidenow reports only 7.

 

[drron]

I hope the authorities are on the ball.
The latest cases in Sydney to me seem to be linked.The area from Ryde to Eastwood,Epping and Macquarie Uni have large Chinese and Korean populations.The doctor worked at Ryde hospital.the nursing home worker works at a home near the Macquarie centre shops and the schoolboy is from Epping high.
I would personally not go to the Macquarie centre.

 

[Pushka]

I hope the authorities are on the ball.
The latest cases in Sydney to me seem to be linked.The area from Ryde to Eastwood,Epping and Macquarie Uni have large Chinese and Korean populations.The doctor worked at Ryde hospital.the nursing home worker works at a home near the Macquarie centre shops and the schoolboy is from Epping high.
I would personally not go to the Macquarie centre.

We were wondering if airconditioning might come into the mix at some stage?

 

[amaroo]

I did a blood test the other day (std 50+ stuff), while I was waiting a lady came out with mask and a cough.

I went in and the young lass was dressed like me i.e. no PPE. I made a joke about the mask that just walked out and she commented that there are many getting tested and it's an overreaction.

me - are you doing the Corona test here?
her - yes
me - so the doctors are writing the order and just sending them to every blood testing place in Oz
her - yes
me - what about your safety?
her- they have to call first, and then we put on the PPE
me - what about the people in the waiting room, or the poor sods that touch the door handles, water coolers magazines, etc
her - ......... nay, she'll be right

I know the testing has to be done somewhere, but I was a little surprised they would send suspected cases into a suburban setting and just carry on like normal business.

She might have been pulling my leg...... I bloody well hope she was. But, if she wasn't - what hope do we have!

 

[Lynda2475]

News reporting that epping high students/staff asked to self quarantine for 3 days (today through Sunday) - surely anyone who was in a calss with the infected student or indeed the classrooms after him, should be doing 14 days no?

 

[Pushka]

I did a blood test the other day (std 50+ stuff), while I was waiting a lady came out with mask and a cough.

I went in and the young lass was dressed like me i.e. no PPE. I made a joke about the mask that just walked out and she commented that there are many getting tested and it's an overreaction.

me - are you doing the Corona test here?
her - yes
me - so the doctors are writing the order and just sending them to every blood testing place in Oz
her - yes
me - what about your safety?
her- they have to call first, and then we put on the PPE
me - what about the people in the waiting room, or the poor sods that touch the door handles, water coolers magazines, etc
her - ......... nay, she'll be right

I know the testing has to be done somewhere, but I was a little surprised they would send suspected cases into a suburban setting and just carry on like normal business.

She might have been pulling my leg...... I bloody well hope she was. But, if she wasn't - what hope do we have!

In SA we are told to not come in but go to the clinic set up at RAH or public hospital. Drs have a sign on their door for exactly the reason you’ve just described. That patient was probably fine judging by the Drs reaction but the next one may not be and they don’t know that.

However comparing what has been happening in the US - ie very little testing of suspected cases - Australia is way ahead.

 

[amaroo]

In SA we are told to not come in but go to the clinic set up at RAH or public hospital. Drs have a sign on their door for exactly the reason you’ve just described. That patient was probably fine judging by the Drs reaction but the next one may not be and they don’t know that.

However comparing what has been happening in the US - ie very little testing of suspected cases - Australia is way ahead.

It wasn't a doctors clinic - it was the place they actually suck the blood out. Normally full of the sick and elderly on their regular blood sucking outing.

 

[Pushka]

It wasn't a doctors clinic - it was the place they actually suck the blood out. Normally full of the sick and elderly on their regular blood sucking outing.

Then that's worse! So the person doing the sucking and reassuring you wasnt even a GP But a phlebotomist? And that virus is tested by swab not blood test although that can happen too.

 

[amaroo]

Then that's worse! So the person doing the sucking and reassuring you wasnt even a GP But a phlebotomist? And that virus is tested by swab not blood test although that can happen too.

Yep, this was Wednesday, I was there for a blood test not related to the corona bug.

 

[Pushka]

And this is not good when a Hospital appears to be at the epicentre of spread.

This report is about the schoolboy whose school is in a so-far quarantine period. It hasnt said whether the mother was still working there up until her son tested positive.
"Health authorities are investigating whether the boy caught the illness from his mother, who works at a Sydney hospital recently impacted by the disease, according to The Daily Telegraph.

She reportedly works at Ryde Hospital, where a 53-year-old doctor was recently diagnosed with coronavirus."

 

[drron]

Telehealth to get a boost for this emergency.message from AMA today.
"My private discussions with Minister Hunt assured me there will shortly be extended Telehealth measures for patient consultations relating to COVID-19. Discussions with the Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer also show the issues I put on behalf of General Practice and the medical profession are being acknowledged. "

 

[Pushka]

Telehealth to get a boost for this emergency.message from AMA today.
"My private discussions with Minister Hunt assured me there will shortly be extended Telehealth measures for patient consultations relating to COVID-19. Discussions with the Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer also show the issues I put on behalf of General Practice and the medical profession are being acknowledged. "

Adelaide opened up two more Covid dedicated clinics today.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

We were wondering if airconditioning might come into the mix at some stage?

No.

As I have outlined in detail in other threads here already ac does not spread coronaviruses including common colds.

The document case of aerosol spread was not ac. It was where there was a faulty and poorly designed sewer riser in the apartment building and people had installed their own fans in theor toilets and bathrooms which in drawing air from outside blew the infected air short distances across people.

Ac in large buildings will draw the air in and it will travel some distance before being heating/ coolined before returning it again also over some distance. Coronaviruses do not survive this.

People in large building catch colds, flus etc through touch or being within about 2m of someone coughing.

People blame ac. It is not so. It is touch or proximity.

Ditto the above for plane travel.

 

[RooFlyer]

I’m currently doing a RTW. Just hit continental Europe. Actively avoiding ‘hot spots’ as I go, but you never know. I’m practicing ‘extreme sanitation’ with hand washing and hand sanitiser, wiping down hotel and airplane surfaces ( FWIW). Let me tell you, it’s impossible not to touch your face occasionally!

I return in 2 weeks; Lord knows where it will be by then. I’ll be isolating myself when I get back, but I’ll still be passing through a couple of airports on the way. ( ADL, MEL). Just watch out for a man with a guy in front with a bell calling out “ Unclean! Unclean!”

 

[Pushka]

No.

As I have outlined in detail in other threads here already ac does not spread coronaviruses including common colds.

The document case of aerosol spread was not ac. It was where there was a faulty and poorly designed sewer riser in the apartment building and people had installed their own fans in theor toilets and bathrooms which in drawing air from outside blew the infected air short distances across people.

Ac in large buildings will draw the air in and it will travel some distance before being heating/ coolined before returning it again also over some distance. Coronaviruses do not survive this.

People in large building catch colds, flus etc through touch or being within about 2m of someone coughing.

People blame ac. It is not so. It is touch or proximity.

Ditto the above for plane travel.

With a son in commercial Air Cond maintenance that is good to hear.

 

[juddles]

Today I took my wife and daughter into a medical centre as the school will not let her back (after a couple of days away with a mild illness) without getting a "medical clearance" !!

We were really not happy to have to attend such a potential hotspot, but anyway....

After the two of them disappeared in with the doctor, I stood outside the building but there was a large door open so I could watch the waiting room. One lady sitting there was absolutely coughing her lungs out. She then went in to another doctor and I saw another person enter and sit in the first persons seat.... What can you do?

And being an area with many foreign students, sure enough also two young ladies came in of chinese appearance (yes, they were not koreans or japanese :/) They were wearing masks and one of them seemed quite unwell. She was handed a clipboard and went to fill it in also in the waiting room. I think it was the same clipboard that my wife had to use minutes earlier, and no doubt will be handled by a gazzillion more patients during the day.

 

[moa999]

People blame ac. It is not so. It is touch or proximity

Elevator buttons and common doors probably being a key risk in an office/apartment block

 

[pauly7]

Today I took my wife and daughter into a medical centre as the school will not let her back (after a couple of days away with a mild illness) without getting a "medical clearance" !!

We were really not happy to have to attend such a potential hotspot, but anyway....

After the two of them disappeared in with the doctor, I stood outside the building but there was a large door open so I could watch the waiting room. One lady sitting there was absolutely coughing her lungs out. She then went in to another doctor and I saw another person enter and sit in the first persons seat.... What can you do?

What can you do?

You can ask your local federal member to have Medicare fund telehealth, with no ‘special’ needs criteria. It is 2020 after all. The UK do it.

That lady and/or your family may not have needed to be in that waiting room at all if we had it!

 

[juddles]

... It is 2020 after all. The UK do it.

That lady and/or your family may not have needed to be in that waiting room at all if we had it!

I totally agree, and not just in this corona era. There are so many visits to doctors that are IMHO unnecessary to be physical presence.

 

[tgh]

There are so many visits to doctors that are IMHO unnecessary to be physical presence.

Indeed , I am constantly irritated by the need for face to face consultations for routine stuff like scrips.
Otoh… the gp's run a business and it needs paying customers.
Bulk billing is a distant memory, and offering a payment for telephone will/may not be enough for many practices.
I suspect that pl insurance "conditions"... will limit the capacity of gp's to consult over the phone.