General Coronavirus chit chat thread - non-travel specific

[Flying mermaid]

Not sure. I'll try check again on iPad. Ok, Bankstown NSW. The person is receptionist for a surgeon and also recently attended massage and hair salon. Now Day 8 after positive and only remnants are lack of taste and smell. She didnt report her result on FB until 2 days ago.

Makes sense as NSW has a low level of community spread. Interesting re plaquenil

 

[drron]

The loss of smell is a symptom of Covid 19.

Coronavirus can damage your sense of smell. Here's how

Yes, losing your sense of smell quite suddenly can be a COVID-19 symptom. Here's what you should do next.

www.abc.net.au

 

[mrsterryn]

The loss of smell is a symptom of Covid 19.

I do hope people remember it is common with dementia as well

 

[drron]

And New York rebelled when the US president threatened to lock New York City down.

USA is a funny place isn’t it?

Indeed.No wonder they are now the epicentre of the US cases.

How NYC’s Political Brass Set the Stage for City Becoming America’s Coronavirus Epicenter

For months city officials assured New Yorkers they should continue life as usual

news.grabien.com

 

[Pushka]

The loss of smell is a symptom of Covid 19.

Coronavirus can damage your sense of smell. Here's how

Yes, losing your sense of smell quite suddenly can be a COVID-19 symptom. Here's what you should do next.

www.abc.net.au

I'm wondering if plaquenil has helped someone deal with the virus better. Given they have lupus you'd expect flare up and significant Covid illness. Maybe the flare might be down the track but they are used to dealing with that. Maybe the daily dosage isn't enough to prevent but enough to ameliorate.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

So how do I reduce my subscription

You will have to call up. Asking for retention may be quicker. Live chat I believe is email replies day later as that section was even harder hit.

I did not read whatever the post you are referring too, but I believe is not completely free. You still have to as a minimum pay for the basic package, but may get free extras included on top of it, or as mentioned have swapped what extras you have for different extras.

The delays I believe were 4 hours plus, but are now an hour or so.

Situation may improve as they are looking to get some of the offshore capacity back by having some of that trained workforce work at home. But being offshore that has it own challenges as offshore call centres have only operated as call centres before.

 

[burmans]

I wonder how we can open our borders considering countries like the USA continue to climb.

Would suggest we will open only to countries with very low infection rates.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Indeed.No wonder they are now the epicentre of the US cases.

How NYC’s Political Brass Set the Stage for City Becoming America’s Coronavirus Epicenter

For months city officials assured New Yorkers they should continue life as usual

news.grabien.com

Not just NY. Sadly that was pretty much the line from all elected officials throughout the USA at all three levels of government.

The counsel Public Health Officials were largely ignored or disregarded.

 

[DC3]

Just saw on the news that the USA President has extended the ‘Easter recovery period’.

Also, yesterday (in a 7-hour period) there were 98 deaths from Coronavirus in NYC. 838 in Spain yesterday. Now, more than 30,000 deaths, worldwide, mostly in Europe.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Would suggest we will open only to countries with very low infection rates.

Cannot see how we can open our borders without a vaccine and it will matter not what the infection rate has been in the other country unless they do what NZ is seeking to do which is to eradicate it.

If our current strategy is successful we will be a country with a population who in the main have not been exposed to CV19 and as such will remain very vulnerable to the contagion sweeping through us.

 

[Quickstatus]

You will have to call up.

That’s the problem. It is not possible to speak to anyone in Foxtel about this

 

[lovetravellingoz]

That’s the problem. It is not possible to speak to anyone in Foxtel about this

I feel your pain. But I was just passing on what I know of the situation.

They are taking calls, but their capacity to do is dramatically less for the reasons I outlined. People do get through.

 

[Flashback]

Just saw on the news that the USA President has extended the ‘Easter recovery period’.

Also, yesterday (in a 7-hour period) there were 98 deaths from Coronavirus in NYC. 838 in Spain yesterday. Now, more than 30,000 deaths, worldwide, mostly in Europe.

Great time for me to be living in Europe then......

 

[Bundy Bear]

On a lupus Australia FB group someone has tested positive for Covid. They are on plaquenil. Had fever then subsided. But now has no taste nor smell. Also no known contacts with overseas nor known positive.

Be interesting to see how their symptoms progress.

 

[andye]

I'm wondering if plaquenil has helped someone deal with the virus better. Given they have lupus you'd expect flare up and significant Covid illness. Maybe the flare might be down the track but they are used to dealing with that. Maybe the daily dosage isn't enough to prevent but enough to ameliorate.

Interestingly, Bergamo doctors reported no increase in severity with immunosuppression (or liver disease)

 

[PineappleSkip]

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.

ATO has a lot of data full stop. Understand their number 1 priority right now is modelling coronavirus impacts. Go for it!

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

I hope you're right. Over the past few weeks doubling every 3.5-4 days has been the trend line generally (Aus and global). SA had a huge spurt before your day 1 and is still the second worst state in terms of cases per capita. The slowing in the last few days is also reflected in national and global numbers' growth. However doubling every 5 days is still no reason to relax.

Unfortunately, a few days is way too few data points to say with any confidence we're moving in the right direction. There are way too many other places which have showed such short term reductions then taken off again, e.g. Ireland, Denmark, Germany, Philippines. Similarly, Singapore and Hong Kong held to low growth rates for a long period, but not recently.

I continue to be uneasy about our testing protocol, which finds cases among travellers and their contacts, and that's where we look. We don't look elsewhere, I hear, because health workers' tests don't indicate significant community transmission. But that approach, and the relatively small sample group, could mean a big lag before these litmus sticks show that community transmission has grown and the testing regime should be changed.

cheers skip

 

[Quickstatus]

Testing should be targeted.

The problem is what happens after a Covid19 test is negative?. Australia’s population is 25mil. Do we retest 25mil everyday, every week?.
A positive person will eventually turn negative (or remain positive but not infectious after a certain period of time).
A negative person may be infected soon after the negative test so the only way to know is to retest frequently - how frequently?

 

[lovetravellingoz]

I continue to be uneasy about our testing protocol, which finds cases among travellers and their contacts, and that's where we look. We don't look elsewhere, I hear, because health workers' tests don't indicate significant community transmission. But that approach, and the relatively small sample group, could mean a big lag before these litmus sticks show that community transmission has grown and the testing regime should be changed.

cheers skip

I understand that they look at the contacts of any confirmed case, and not just confirmed cases who were travellers.

You need the 500,000 minute tests to arrived to start to search more widely. Until then they concentrate on where the most likely hits will be as otherwise vast numbers of tests could be wasted for little gain.

 

[Quickstatus]

By the way the 2020 Influenza Vaccine should be available from mid April 2020

I wonder if the antivaxxers will refuse this and future corona vaccines

Salient points:
This year 6m-5yr group added to NIP (national immunisation program)

A quadrivalent vaccine available to 65 and over.

General Info:

Clinical update: 2020 seasonal influenza vaccines – early advice for vaccination providers

Annual influenza vaccination is recommended for all persons aged 6 months and over (unless contraindicated). This will reduce their chance of becoming ill with influenza.

www.health.gov.au

Age group specific vaccine eligibility under NIP

https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2020/03/atagi-advice-on-seasonal-influenza-vaccines-in-2020.pdf

 

[CaptJCool]

ATO has a lot of data full stop. Understand their number 1 priority right now is modelling coronavirus impacts. Go for it!

Unfortunately, a few days is way too few data points to say with any confidence we're moving in the right direction. There are way too many other places which have showed such short term reductions then taken off again, e.g. Ireland, Denmark, Germany, Philippines. Similarly, Singapore and Hong Kong held to low growth rates for a long period, but not recently.

I continue to be uneasy about our testing protocol, which finds cases among travellers and their contacts, and that's where we look. We don't look elsewhere

I agree with you. Cautiously optimistic - it’s clear in some parts fo Australia the Genie is out of the bottle (Noosa 50th birthday, tumbling Falls wedding, parliament, Barossa, Ruby Princess, Bondi backpackers, club 77 Darlinghurst, Gold Coast)

I not yet seen a chart that plots key restrictions against dates and tallies.


Ref Charting the COVID-19 spread: Latest coronavirus deaths lift national tally to 18


Ref Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Australia | Data

https://www.health.gov.au/sites/def...lia-by-state-and-source-of-transmission_6.png There’s been banter on the guardian which adds up the Ruby’s contribution to this
NSW 30 March There are currently 189 NSW cases from the Ruby Princess, 66 cases from the Ovation of the Seas, which docked 18 March and 26 cases from the Voyager of the Seas which docked on 18 March. There are two new cases in NSW, from the Celebrity Solstice, making it four total cases in NSW.
SA 30 March As of today, there are 71 cases linked to the Ruby Princess cruise ship, which is the biggest cluster in cases. There have been 101 cases in total linked to cruise ships.
WA 30 March on one day alone Of these new cases, 27 are related to the cruise ship Artania. An additional two cases are related to cruise ships, including one from the Ruby Princess and one from Ovation of the Seas. PLUS 55 from 22-29 March



Professor Tom Kompas from the University of Melbourne and Professor Quentin Grafton from ANU have tracked infection rates against physical distancing measures. Their results are detailed in the specialist ANU publication Policy Forum.

“The data now tells us cases are currently doubling about every seven days in Australia, and although the daily rate of growth in infected cases has now decreased to 10%, the growth pattern is still exponential,” Prof Kompas said.

Our spread model forecast of infections made on 27 March for the 29 March ranged from 3,950 to 4,460.
The actual reported number on 29 March was 3,984, near the LOW end of that range. It is important to note that the daily growth rate has fallen from 27 per cent on 12 March to about 9.5 per cent on 29 March. Our forecast for 6pm on 1 April now ranges from 5,080 to 5,970 cases, with 5,220 most likely, and for 2 April the range is 5,510 to 6,835, with 5,715 most likely.
Ref Sums, germs, and fear - Policy Forum


14 days of trendlines can give us hard data against imposed measures BUT we don’t have any/many of them