General Coronavirus chit chat thread - non-travel specific

[p--and--t]

Novac Djokovic has apparently tested positive according to radio report just now. Quelle surprise!

...and his wife and other competitors associated with the silly tournaments he set up with zero social distancing.

 

[Pushka]

...and his wife and other competitors associated with the silly tournaments he set up with zero social distancing.

It is indeed a sad and weird world when Nick Kyrgios, who tweeted in disbelief and against these tournaments at the time they were partying, has become the voice of reason here.

 

[tgh]

Kyrgios may be on the way to becoming a model citizen, a mercurial persona and endless rivers of money have made for a long journey.
Almost everyone grows up eventually ,it took me a long time...

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

Geez....on a closer to home note.

I‘m hearing friends of friends who live in a Melbourne hotspot LGA is travelling to Sydney.

So disappointing, this is how a wave happens.

just asking anyone who knows, what is the enforceable laws at the moment on movement? Just recommended or something else.

 

[RooFlyer]

it may be

mainly use the 14 day period

I assume that you will keep them quarantined

most likely be positive

I doubt that

One can speculate

would most likely have been infected

Apologies for the selective quoting, but I'm just highlighting that in your many posts nay saying what others opine, there are many 'ifs' and 'maybes' etc. Very little in this whole shermozzle is absolute and any case can be built assuming this or that. Take-away. I hope if you think people are wrong, you can be more concrete and help us understand.

 

[Gremlin]

Geez....on a closer to home note.

I‘m hearing friends of friends who live in a Melbourne hotspot LGA is travelling to Sydney.

So disappointing, this is how a wave happens.

just asking anyone who knows, what is the enforceable laws at the moment on movement? Just recommended or something else.

Nothing enforceable in this scenario unless they are personally meant to be in self-iso due to contact tracing identifying them as a close contact of a known infected. It's simply a "very strong recommendation" from the NSW, Vic and Federal Governments not to travel in such circumstances.

Maybe the solution is to close the borders?

*ducks for cover*

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

Nothing enforceable in this scenario unless they are personally meant to be in self-iso due to contact tracing identifying them as a close contact of a known infected. It's simply a "very strong recommendation" from the NSW, Vic and Federal Governments not to travel in such circumstances.

Maybe the solution is to close the borders?

*ducks for cover*

Thanks.

I just hope they didn’t interact at the ‘wrong’ local shops, or chose to get tested and got result before traveling. I heard for example of a handful of case from 1 retail shop.

The problem is most think using past restrictions.

If it’s a few local government areas, it must be feasible to do blanket testing, rather than everyone else closing borders.

 

[Gremlin]

If it’s a few local government areas, it must be feasible to do blanket testing, rather than everyone else closing borders.

Maybe...

I heard yesterday that the LGAs in question cover roughly a million residents. You'd expect there to be some more targeted measure to restrict that number further, but the more you have to assume about it's spread already, the bigger the risk of error.

 

[Flying mermaid]

Nothing enforceable in this scenario unless they are personally meant to be in self-iso due to contact tracing identifying them as a close contact of a known infected. It's simply a "very strong recommendation" from the NSW, Vic and Federal Governments not to travel in such circumstances.

Maybe the solution is to close the borders?

*ducks for cover*

I don’t disagree with you . However I was reading today that it would be very hard to do that as there are something like 50 different roads to get out of Victoria and lots of border towns. I think a more rational solution is to restict/lock down those areas both to stop it spreading within Victoria (if it’s not too late) and to other states - which I suppose is just NSW and ACT.

 

[blackcat20]

Maybe...

I heard yesterday that the LGAs in question cover roughly a million residents. You'd expect there to be some more targeted measure to restrict that number further, but the more you have to assume about it's spread already, the bigger the risk of error.

My LGA (one of the hotspots) has approx 360k people. There arent even any cases in my suburb as part of this latest outbreak.

 

[Flying mermaid]

My LGA (one of the hotspots) has approx 360k people. There arent even any cases in my suburb as part of this latest outbreak.

Fingers crossed it stays that way. Hopefully they can get this under control before it spreads more - 20 non hotel cases today

 

[p--and--t]

My LGA (one of the hotspots) has approx 360k people. There arent even any currently known cases in my suburb as part of this latest outbreak.

Fixed for you. No problems. My pleasure.

 

[blackcat20]

Fixed for you. No problems. My pleasure.

Which is what I meant by outbreak, ie the current known cases.

 

[Gremlin]

I don’t disagree with you . However I was reading today that it would be very hard to do that as there are something like 50 different roads to get out of Victoria and lots of border towns. I think a more rational solution is to restict/lock down those areas both to stop it spreading within Victoria (if it’s not too late) and to other states - which I suppose is just NSW and ACT.

Tongue in cheek (well, kind of...). And I agree re localised lockdowns. But it's not happening.

I kind of feel like we are here because all the messaging has led us here.

Comparing to NZ, all the messaging was clear and consistent. Their target was elimination. That's very easy for the population to understand. When cases emerge, they're now stomped on quickly. That's what needs to happen because that's part of achieving elimination.

Here our strategy, we've been told time and again, is suppression, not elimination. Outbreaks are to be expected. We're not trying to eradicate, we're simply suppressing. There's no clear common understanding in the wider population as to what success looks like with a suppression strategy. That's never been articulated at a national level, although we were told a few weeks ago that we had suppressed the virus. It's hardly surprising that not everyone got the message that the job wasn't done. A few of the state premiers have had a go at describing what success looks like for their particular states only to have it look very much like elimination. But that's not the strategy nationally.

So we continue to hear that outbreaks are to be expected. But we also hear yesterday the PM say that outbreak management is a state issue. And now we have an outbreak, one that we've been told is to be expected, we don't have a national approach to containing it. Presumably the next one, which we've also been told to expect, will be managed in a different manner if it occurs in a different state.

And that's why we see TV interviews this morning of pax from MEL arriving in SYD saying that they weren't concerned about spreading the virus because "we've already flattened the curve" or "outbreaks are to be expected" or "it's only a recommendation not to travel, so I'm still allowed".

We can't have it both ways. We can't have a suppression strategy where outbreaks are to be expected, that affords more freedom of movement and personal accountability than an elimination strategy but then expect the general population to act in a manner consistent with elimination. Either it's an acceptable price to pay as a nation or it's not. From a personal perspective, either is better than the ambiguity we have now.

 

[Flying mermaid]

300 ADF coming in to help with hotel quarantine and hot spots.

 

[Pushka]

Our communication was always Flatten the Curve because to expect elimination was almost naive. Trouble is, except for one state, Elimination seems very much the case. For the moment.

 

[Flying mermaid]

Our communication was always Flatten the Curve because to expect elimination was almost naive. Trouble is, except for one state, Elimination seems very much the case. For the moment.

Australia has done way better than anyone expected and everyone has eliminated apart from Victoria and NSW ( NSW does still have an odd one pop up). Victoria of course is the big exception. It’s such a nasty virus though, that it only takes a few people doing the wrong thing and it runs away.

I don’t think anyone expected in March that we would be in this position - if Vic could just get it’s act together (and it’s not too late), then maybe elimination is possible.

 

[RooFlyer]

then maybe elimination is possible.

And then the states want global elimination before we open the international borders?

As I've mentioned before, from my point of view, the big problem with an 'elimination' strategy, as respects state and international border opening, is that when the inevitable new case pops up in the community, are they obliged to clang the gates shut again? Will our out-of-state bookings not be secure for the forseeable future?

 

[OZDUCK]

A lot of us on here were very pessimistic about the 're-opening' of certain U.S states even though they had seemingly not seen any reduction in infection rates. We were obviously pretty right to have our doubts about the wisdom of what was happening. It is obviously not an artifact of extra testing as hospitalisation rates have also shot up.

As Texas hits all-time high in new COVID-19 cases, Gov. Greg Abbott tightens outdoor gathering rules

AUSTIN — Gov. Greg Abbott sternly warned Texans of “rampant” spread of coronavirus that took the state to a new high Tuesday of more than 5,000 new cases in a...

www.dallasnews.com

 

[Flying mermaid]

And then the states want global elimination before we open the international borders?

As I've mentioned before, from my point of view, the big problem with an 'elimination' strategy, as respects state and international border opening, is that when the inevitable new case pops up in the community, are they obliged to clang the gates shut again? Will our out-of-state bookings not be secure for the forseeable future?

I certainly don’t see a backwards strategy happening. Even with the problems in Victoria QLD appears to be still opening borders in July. I would love to see the virus eliminated in Australia but probably isn’t possible. Opening borders is going to be interesting given it’s running rampant overseas. A vaccine is obviously the way out.