General Coronavirus chit chat thread - non-travel specific

[Black Duck]

[/QUOTE]

Some good news for small businesses in Australia.

Commonwealth Bank, Westpac rush to pause electronic payment fees

As banks try fast pain relief for merchants.

www.itnews.com.au

Merchant fees to be scrapped on electronic payments hopefully.

We are a very small business partnership with no other employees and have had to close up. Spoke to Westpac this week about options and was pleased to hear that they will automatically waive 3 months worth of merchant fees for us starting from April. They actually charge it at the beginiing of the month and then refund it about the 15th. They are refunding the terminal rental and minimun fee per month so around $50. Every little bit is helpful given we now have nothing coming in. If the terminal is used at all they still refund those fees but charge on the actual transaction made.

Fortunately Mr BD works a couple of days a week elsewhere which should continue so we won't starve.

 

[tgh]

IN 2008/9 , the broker suggested that dividends might halve or worse.
IIRc the dividend stream barely faltered.
This time it looks like being different..

 

[Pushka]

I wondered where does an employer start? Would there be a link to register for the assistance.

Register here

JobKeeper Payment

Register your interest for the JobKeeper Payment

www.ato.gov.au

ATO will have a lot of the data from the STP system. Eventually you will Just need to prove loss of 30% income from same period last year. Sadly we can qualify for the billion dollar company benchmark of 50% loss.

 

[CaptJCool]

That was my question of a few pages ago. What if by some miracle we can contain it. What do we do next?

6 only today in SA

 

[TheRealTMA]

IN 2008/9 , the broker suggested that dividends might halve or worse.
IIRc the dividend stream barely faltered.
This time it looks like being different..

Apart from AIH, all of our other dividends have held, so far.

 

[I love to travel]

i think that the last thing to happen should be reopening the borders.

 

[TheRealTMA]

just had a dividend deferred to October - at this rate I don't need to worry about covid-19 - will just die of cold in winter or starvation Master FM might be sending money to support us and his sister .....

If someone can send food and blankets, we can send wine.

 

[tgh]

all of our other dividends have held, so far.

Indeed they have because they are retrospective , it's the next tranche that is going to hurt….

 

[CaptJCool]

No. Cases in Australia continue to double every 3-3.5 days. This has been the rate of growth for weeks. It’s growing at a similar rate throughout the world, with some low-growth rate outliers (e.g. Iran) likely to be due to testing deficiencies, a couple of others (China, S Korea) where the curve has peaked, and others where testing may be playing catch-up. New Zealand case numbers doubled every 2 days this week.

Australia does not appear to be reporting recoveries very well, which would be valuable data. Active cases are the ones that spread, but not reporting recoveries means that, over time, active cases will be overstate.

cheers skip

Absolute rate v growth rate. As you move up the baseline you get a much reduced growth rate...
South Australia
Day 1 100
Day 4 199. Growth rate days 1-4 100%
Day 8 299 growth rate days 4-8 50%
Day 9 305. From day 4 baseline resets to 199 so in 5 days growth rate is 50% so at worst doubles in 10 days.....which is a good sign

When and if this thing is under control in AU, I would have thought the first steps would be, yes we accept people from over seas if :

1. You have been vaccinated/fully recovered and can prove it with a conclusive antibody test before you get on the plane to come here.
or
2a. 14 days in an airport hotel at your own expense with guards to ensure you stay there. 2b. Signed agreement to be vaccinated while you are at the hotel. 2c. Antibody test before you leave the hotel after 14 days.

State borders are closed so I suspect States will come out of lockdown at different times.
Because you keep people out you effectively make a State / Territory an isolated island and so could resume work, social events, sports etc if the daily rates of infection are zero. We need a cricket teams worn of ducks
If so, something like SANFL could kick off, and live sport resume....

I listened to Paul Kelly today and he was asked that question. He said they were starting to work on an exit strategy, but got the impression way too early to really think about it. Their first goal is to contain community transmission.

Post automatically merged: Mar 30, 2020

We are way off even thinking about that!

I think the sentiments about how much enforcement of the new rules will apply, will give some indication as to stance of various States. If we get a run of ducks on the scoreboard within a State / Territory why would you keep restrictive conditions on the broader population ?

 

[Quickstatus]

Covid19 Foxtel

While Covid is causing all sorts of problems for all sections of the community, it is of no surprise that Foxtel is also affected

In normal circumstances, it is impossible to cancel or reduce a Foxtel subscription without calling Foxtel on the phone number 131999. Foxtel makes it deliberately difficult to reduce or cancel but easy to increase a plan or signup because Foxtel’s website only allows upgrades or new customer signups. The website does not allow for cancellation or reduction on the subscription plan

Foxtel website now says Covid has impacted its call centres and are not taking any calls except for technical issues. Therefore it is impossible to cancel a subscription or reduce a subscription.

While I accept that call centres would be affected due to social distancing rules and non essential services rules, I do not accept that I do not have the ability to cancel or reduce my subscription. On one level this may be interpreted as Foxtel not wanting to lose revenue by making impossible for people to cancel their subscription - because this is the effect of preventing people from cancelling or reducing their subscription.

Even live chat is not available.

 

[Foreigner]

Register here

JobKeeper Payment

Register your interest for the JobKeeper Payment

www.ato.gov.au

ATO will have a lot of the data from the STP system. Eventually you will Just need to prove loss of 30% income from same period last year. Sadly we can qualify for the billion dollar company benchmark of 50% loss.

That’s appreciated, thanks

 

[Himeno]

There has to be some kind of strategy.
We all must get it and recover (..or not ), there is no scenario where it just goes away , or am I missing something.
Ergo there needs to be a carefully controlled infection programme.. what fun...

The "strategy" is to use social, legal and economic means to artificially create a substitute for the lack of natural immunity to a virus humans have never encountered before until there is a workable cure and/or vaccine.

 

[Himeno]

Covid19 Foxtel

While Covid is causing all sorts of problems for all sections of the community, it is of no surprise that Foxtel is also affected

In normal circumstances, it is impossible to cancel or reduce a Foxtel subscription without calling Foxtel on the phone number 131999. Foxtel makes it deliberately difficult to reduce or cancel but easy to increase a plan or signup because Foxtel’s website only allows upgrades or new customer signups. The website does not allow for cancellation or reduction on the subscription plan

Foxtel website now says Covid has impacted its call centres and are not taking any calls except for technical issues. Therefore it is impossible to cancel a subscription or reduce a subscription.

While I accept that call centres would be affected due to social distancing rules and non essential services rules, I do not accept that I do not have the ability to cancel or reduce my subscription. On one level this may be interpreted as Foxtel not wanting to lose revenue by making impossible for people to cancel their subscription - because this is the effect of preventing people from cancelling or reducing their subscription.

Even live chat is not available.

I'm rarely able to use the TV (and connected Foxtel box) unless the parents are off on holiday (which isn't happening any time soon. They cancelled their July European holiday plans a week ago after the tour it was built around got cancelled).
Most of the channels I would want to watch on Foxtel aren't in the package that they have anyway (mostly sport which I don't give a about).
Last Thursday, mum told me that Foxtel was making all channels free to all subscriptions while lock downs are in place and gave me the log in details to watch on my computer.

 

[DC3]

There has to be some kind of strategy ....

Unlikely, other than gobbledygook perhaps.

 

[Quickstatus]

The "strategy" is to use social, legal and economic means to artificially create a substitute for the lack of natural immunity to a virus humans have never encountered before until there is a workable cure and/or vaccine.

Bubonic plague:
The word "quarantine" came about during this time when Venice closed its port to incoming vesels. Then the Venetians allowed incoming ships to harbour but quarantined the people on board for 30 days initially then 40 days on the ships before they were allowed onshore. the Venetians even created a quarantine island.
Lessons learnt from the bubonic plague eventually led to the isolation of plague infected people within their homes - blue crosses were attached on their front doors. These people could not come out of their houses for 1 month. Other movements were severely restricted.
Only healthy people were allowed out of homes carrying a white rod indicating they were not infected.


..............
There is no real science behind the social distancing rule. Except that it is known and accepted thatCovid is mainly transmitted through droplets which dont hang around in the air for long. hence the distancing rules. Its a matter of trial and error and the experience of China and South Korea has informed much of the current regulations.

 

[DC3]

... Foxtel was making all channels free to all subscriptions while lock downs are in place ....

How do I access that? Foxtel has added Drama and Kids to my package, but nothing else.

 

[Quickstatus]

I'm rarely able to use the TV (and connected Foxtel box) unless the parents are off on holiday (which isn't happening any time soon. They cancelled their July European holiday plans a week ago after the tour it was built around got cancelled).
Most of the channels I would want to watch on Foxtel aren't in the package that they have anyway (mostly sport which I don't give a about).
Last Thursday, mum told me that Foxtel was making all channels free to all subscriptions while lock downs are in place and gave me the log in details to watch on my computer.

Free except to those who are already paying...

 

[Flying mermaid]

all of our other dividends have held, so far.

Indeed they have because they are retrospective , it's the next tranche that is going to hurt….

I have just had one that was due to be paid on Friday delayed to October. Have another one due next week that I am pretty sure will be rescinded, Many companies are scrapping or pending dividends that were promised in February.

I don’t disagree with it as companies need to do whatever to survive when staring into an unknown future. Just hope the rent holds

 

[Foreigner]

If Australia had auto industry I suppose ventilators could have been made for medical needs

 

[get me outta here]

Two photographs of the Johns Hopkins Covid map. 22 March and 30 March. Huge jump in the USA: