Predictions of when international flights may resume/bans lifted

[Lynda2475]

But if they bring back the travel ban and hotel quarantine caps it could take a while to get back.

Not going to happen in NSW and Vic, other states who knows. Just choose your flights wisely.

 

[mviy]

I'm flying QF in both directions. So will be flying back directly from the UK to Australia, so hopefully that will be O.K.

 

[jrfsp]

The UK has put South Africa on its Red List.
“Flights from South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Botswana, Eswatini and Zimbabwe will be suspended in the UK from midday on Friday and all six countries will be added to the country’s red list, UK health secretary Sajid Javid has said.”

The Irish Times

I wonder if Australia will follow ?
We don’t (yet) have a Red List

Israel has announced it is barring its citizens from travelling to southern Africa and banning the entry of foreigners from the region, citing the detection by South African scientists of a new Covid variant.

South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia and Eswatini were added to Israel’s “red”, or highest-risk, travel list that reflects coronavirus infection rates overseas.

 

[RAM]

It’s 10 days Hotel Quarantine in the UK and you can only enter from a Red list country if you are a British National or permanent resident.

I imagine this will all be over long before June.

PLEASE don't tempt fate!

 

[RAM]

Not going to happen in NSW and Vic, other states who knows. Just choose your flights wisely.

Not so sure of that given that currently NSW has had more unsourced leaks from Hotel Quarantine than Qld & Vic combined.

There have been several (not publicly announced) leaks from NSW Hotel Quarantine since the June 16th limo driver's wife case (NSW Health changed her to 1st case quietly, and him to second).

 

[andye]

Not so sure of that given that currently NSW has had more unsourced leaks from Hotel Quarantine than Qld & Vic combined.

There have been several (not publicly announced) leaks from NSW Hotel Quarantine since the June 16th limo driver's wife case (NSW Health changed her to 1st case quietly, and him to second).

Intrigued-are you are saying Mrs Limo was in/working in HQ and he didn't catch it from pilots Sounds worse than him not wearing a mask or vaccinated
Apologies if I have wrong end of stick which I may have as can't believe it hasn't been all over the news

 

[justinbrett]

Not so sure of that given that currently NSW has had more unsourced leaks from Hotel Quarantine than Qld & Vic combined.

There have been several (not publicly announced) leaks from NSW Hotel Quarantine since the June 16th limo driver's wife case (NSW Health changed her to 1st case quietly, and him to second).

And NSW processed more people than QLD & VIC combined, so not surprising.

 

[Lynda2475]

Not so sure of that given that currently NSW has had more unsourced leaks from Hotel Quarantine than Qld & Vic combined.

Irrelevant given fully vaxed Australian Citizens and PRs aren't required to do HQ in NSW.

NSW case numbers have stabilized under 300 a day despite your claimed secret HQ leaks, the daily case count is now a combined local/overseas acquired figure too.

Dom isn't about to backflip and start locking fully vaxed Aussies and PRs out of NSW.

 

[Lynda2475]

as can't believe it hasn't been all over the news

If it were indeed the case it would have been reported,lack of such reporting would suggest just a nice conspiracy theory.

Mostly irrelevant given the state has well and truly moved on and covid cases and hospitalizations are at manageable levels.

 

[RAM]

Intrigued-are you are saying Mrs Limo was in/working in HQ and he didn't catch it from pilots Sounds worse than him not wearing a mask or vaccinated
Apologies if I have wrong end of stick which I may have as can't believe it hasn't been all over the news

Partly correct. No, Mrs Limo had nothing to do with HQ.

Spoiler: Read more

Remember NSW Health never found the source of the May outbreak in the same suburbs (Eastern Suburbs fund manager case). Looking at the two maps (published separately and never over-laid in any media) I cut & paste them, right sized, into a graphic editing program and layered them. Made one layer 40% transparent and around 2/3rds of the areas over lapped in Waverley/Woolahra.

Perhaps it was related to who the Eastern Suburbs Fund Manager had caught in from a few weeks earlier in May, or that someone else had caught it from a leak in HQ in the meantime. Who knows as NSW Health never identified the source for either the May nor June HQ leaks, nor 8 of the last ten leaks since Dec 2020.

It was never announced publicly by Brad Hazzard, Gladys Berejiklian, Kerry Chant nor NSW Health that the #1 case had been changed to the limo driver's wife. It only emerged in late June (IIRC may have been 1st week of July but don't think so) when a reporter asked it at a Friday (pretty sure it was a Friday) 11am briefing. Brad Hazzard would not answer the question asked & refused to allow the reporter to challenge him, instructing the reporter that 'you've had one question, that's it."

Hazzard nominated another more friendly reporter, who disappointed him by asking him to answer the question. Brad again deflected.

Next reporter, same question. Deflected. 4th reporter quite loudly & abruptly asked for the question to be answered. Deflected. 5th reporter, again picked by Hazzard demanded it be answered, "Can you please confirm if that report from the limo driver is true?".

Worth looking at the video (I'll try & track down the date), Gladys glares at Hazzard & all Hazard says is "Yes, that's correct." No follow-up questions taken.

IIRC the briefing was shut down very shortly after.

Original question came as (IIRC), "Can you please confirm what the limo driver told me when I interviewed him yesterday, that NSW Health re-contacted them a few days after the intital days of interviews and asked to conduct more extensive interviews. When the limo driver asked why as he'd already spent many hours - the response was, no we want to speak more with your wife. He then asked why and was told that both of the FedEx aircrew had tested negative so he had not caught it from them. NSW Health now believed that he'd caught it from his wife who had previously been designated case #2."

BTW The police investigation confirmed the limo driver had actually not only complied with all requirements but had gone further in his precautions than required (confirmed by CCTV footage obtained from more than a dozen locations) before, arriving, during, leaving the airport pickup and before, arriving, dropping off & leaving the hotel.

Also not ever publicly mentioned at the 11 am briefings.

Meanwhile the mass media continue to incorrectly report it as coming from the limo driver.

 

[N860CR]

Partly correct.

It was never announced publicly by Brad Hazzard, Gladys Berejiklian, Kerry Chant nor NSW Health. It finally emerged in late June when a reporter asked it as a Friday 11am briefing. Brad Hazzard would not answer the question asked & refused to allow the reporter to challenge him, instructing the reporter that 'you've had one question, that's it."

Hazzard nominated another more friendly reporter, who disappointed him by asking him to answer the question. Brad again deflected.

Next reporter, same question. Deflected. 4th reporter quite loudly & abruptly asked for the question to be answered. Deflected. 5th reporter, again picked by Hazzard demanded it be answered, "Can you please confirm if that report from the limo driver is true?".

Worth looking at the video (I'll try & track down the date), Gladys glares at Hazzard & all Hazard says is "Yes, that's correct."

IIRC the briefing was shut down very shortly after.

Original question came as (IIRC), "Can you please confirm what the limo driver told me when I interviewed him yesterday, that NSW Health re-contacted them a few days after the intital days of interviews and asked to conduct more extensive interviews. When the limo driver asked why as he'd already spent many hours - the response was, no we want to speak more with your wife. He then asked why and was told that both of the FedEx aircrew had tested negative so he had not caught it from them. NSW Health now believed that he'd caught it from his wife who had previously been designated case #2."

BTW The police investigation confirmed the limo driver had actually not only complied with all requirements but had gone further in his precautions than required (confirmed by CCTV footage obtained from more than a dozen locations) before, arriving, during, leaving the airport pickup and before, arriving, dropping off & leaving the hotel.

Also not ever publicly mentioned at the 11 am briefings.

Yet the poor guy had tabloid media chasing him into his unit and shoving their cameras in his kitchen window.

If anything, just an indication of how insane our obsession with the impossible “covid-zero” was.

 

[RAM]

Irrelevant given fully vaxed Australian Citizens and PRs aren't required to do HQ in NSW.

NSW case numbers have stabilized under 300 a day despite your claimed secret HQ leaks, the daily case count is now a combined local/overseas acquired figure too.

Dom isn't about to backflip and start locking fully vaxed Aussies and PRs out of NSW.

It is not up to Dom to decide on international borders though as Scott Morrison already reminded him. So far reportedly been detected in Hong Kong from a SA traveller (a couple of days ago) and Botswana (a couple of days ago). Hopefully not spread any further & even more that it is not a 'worse' variant despite its reportedly many more mutations. We could be lucky and it goes the way of the Beta variant from SA.

Meanwhile in locking people out, as if by magic:

Australian health authorities won’t hesitate to shut border to South Africa

Health Minister Greg Hunt said the country would not hesitate to block flights from South Africa if health experts are concerned about the new coronavirus variant.

click.email.fairfaxmedia.com.au

 

[jrfsp]

It is not up to Dom to decide on international borders though as Scott Morrison already reminded him.

And as if by magic:

Australian health authorities won’t hesitate to shut border to South Africa

Health Minister Greg Hunt said the country would not hesitate to block flights from South Africa if health experts are concerned about the new coronavirus variant.

click.email.fairfaxmedia.com.au

I'd be surprised if it doesn't happen within the next 48 hours. Looks like other countries are jumping on the bandwagon now, Singapore, Germany, Israel, Japan...

EU is in the process of stopping travel from southern Africa

EU, US to halt air travel to and from southern Africa

European Union states have agreed to suspend travel from southern Africa after the detection of a new Covid-19 variant named Omicron, the presidency of the EU has said.

www.rte.ie

 

[RAM]

Yet the poor guy had tabloid media chasing him into his unit and shoving their cameras in his kitchen window.

If anything, just an indication of how insane our obsession with the impossible “covid-zero” was.

Mainly because Brad Hazzard intially reported that the limo driver had not followed the State Govt requirements, he'd flaunted the rules etc & would face the full force of the law.

Spoiler: Read more

A bit like the statement about the 'illegal gathering at the funeral in far Western NSW' - deflecting the attention from another escape from Greater Sydney. And again as it turned out, but got reported, the funeral gathering was perfectly legal as there were no restriction on numbers etc as the area was outside of Greater Sydney etc.

Spin doctoring 101 - deflect attention from your mistakes by blaming someone else, say it first & say it loud

.

 

[RAM]

And NSW processed more people than QLD & VIC combined, so not surprising.

Hmm.

Gold standard NSW Contact Tracing has failure rate of 80% for HQ leaks since Nov 2020 - the data stopped being published in mid July by NSW Health but remained available on an obscure page until I pointed a few journalists to it. All up around 17 different data sets are no longer publicly available in NSW - when I stopped counting.

Vic & Qld around 15%.

Challenge: Find the break-up of daily deaths in NSW by vaccination status.

Given the impending political calendars then international arrivals will become a greater focus for the Govt strategy as a lockdown election would not be helpful. Much like we're seeing European countries back tracking on the "Never again" statements - admittedly their % vaccinated leaves much more leeway for CV spreading although recent studies have started to highlight the issue of fully vaccinated unwittingly becoming superspreaders (not used in the statements though) for a number of days while themselves being Asymptomatic.
____________________________________________

I had been about to redeem points for business return Hawaii in late January.... Hawaiian Airlines even have a cash fare Black Friday sale.

Now, think I'll wait. Time to do some travel insurance detailed research.

 

[justinbrett]

Hmmm this thread got off topic fast.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to flying overseas in January. Others can rehash whatever debates they may wish, I'm going on holiday.

 

[dajop]

Hmmm this thread got off topic fast.

I’m shocked.

 

[N860CR]

I'd be surprised if it doesn't happen within the next 48 hours. Looks like other countries are jumping on the bandwagon now, Singapore, Germany, Israel, Japan...

EU is in the process of stopping travel from southern Africa

EU, US to halt air travel to and from southern Africa

European Union states have agreed to suspend travel from southern Africa after the detection of a new Covid-19 variant named Omicron, the presidency of the EU has said.

www.rte.ie

Can only laugh. We stuff around and drag our feet when serious viruses pop up in Africa and ignore it, but a slightly different version of little covid and we go insane. The world has literally lost it.

 

[Princess Fiona]

It’s happening
Changes to be announced for quarantine for South Africa arrivals

Presser at 12.30.

 

[mviy]

Hopefully in a few weeks or so the evidence will indicate that the new variant isn't something to be overly concerned about, but at this point we don't know and it's understandable that many nations are taking a cautious approach to this.

Worst case is we're back to square one and the vaccine manufacturers need to quickly develop a new version of the vaccine to target the new variant, and major restrictions on international travel come back.