Australian Reports of the Virus Spread

[MelMel]

I got tested in March and again in December at drive through sites. I showed my licence and Medicare card. I was asked (in December ) if I’d recently returned from SA, how many people in my household, if any of them had Covid and what my symptoms were. No acknowledgement of previous tests.

 

[james4321]

If the government wants to threaten private industry with closure and individuals with the destruction of their business through no fault of their own then said government better be capable of quickly scaling up it's response to deal with the problem and provide adequate resources. What else do we pay taxes for?

The Feds have gone missing - surely JobKeeper must be reviewed/extended even if only for selected industry groups eg International Tourism and Airlines/Airports will not be back in business by March (or even this year?)

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

Interesting note...from ABC covid blog

SA security guards breached medi-hotel protocols 99 times, according to police figures​

Private security guards at South Australia's medi-hotels breached protocol on 99 occasions, according to police figures provided to State Parliament.

They show five breaches resulted in instant dismissal for incidents such as smelling of alcohol or filming inside the medi-hotel with a phone.

Antother 94 incidents saw security officers stood down from duty for sleeping while on duty or incorrect use of personal protective equipment.

Next month patients recovering from COVID-19 will go to a dedicated medi hotel run by police and health workers.

It opens in February but SA Opposition health spokesman Chris Picton says that's not good enough.

"What action is being taken to ensure that these sorts of breaches don't happen again under the government's watch? And why we're having to wait so long for this new dedicated facility that we were promised would open before we had international arrivals restart to begin with?"

 

[jase05]

Interesting note...from ABC covid blog

SA security guards breached medi-hotel protocols 99 times, according to police figures​

Private security guards at South Australia's medi-hotels breached protocol on 99 occasions, according to police figures provided to State Parliament.

They show five breaches resulted in instant dismissal for incidents such as smelling of alcohol or filming inside the medi-hotel with a phone.

Antother 94 incidents saw security officers stood down from duty for sleeping while on duty or incorrect use of personal protective equipment.

Next month patients recovering from COVID-19 will go to a dedicated medi hotel run by police and health workers.

It opens in February but SA Opposition health spokesman Chris Picton says that's not good enough.

"What action is being taken to ensure that these sorts of breaches don't happen again under the government's watch? And why we're having to wait so long for this new dedicated facility that we were promised would open before we had international arrivals restart to begin with?"

I think this had been mentioned previously and many have lost there jobs over it. I’d be very surprised if all states didn’t have similar issues but most are relatively minor breaches that get swept under the carpet

 

[RooFlyer]

If the government wants to threaten private industry with closure and individuals with the destruction of their business through no fault of their own then said government better be capable of quickly scaling up it's response to deal with the problem and provide adequate resources. What else do we pay taxes for?

I think you are talking state governments there, re destruction of industries? Federal taxes are paid, in part to fund:

Economic Response to the Coronavirus | Treasury.gov.au ... including JobKeeper etc which has held back a revolution# against state governments.

# In as much as Australians could be bothered having a revolution.

The Feds have gone missing - surely JobKeeper must be reviewed/extended even if only for selected industry groups eg International Tourism and Airlines/Airports will not be back in business by March (or even this year?)

My bolding - as a blanket statement, ROFL. see link above. I think once JobKeeper etc from the Feds is finally wound back, we won't see such knee-jerk, puritanical responses from some states and employment will benefit.

 

[Port Power]

if 'emergency powers' emanate from a 'state of emergency', I'm not sure many are. Tas was finally released from its SoE a month or so ago and several other states as well I think.

Did you stopover in Melbourne, or just transit the airport? If the latter - they are enforcing quarantine for transits?
_____________

I was in transit, but had to stay overnight at a near-airport hotel. However, the authorities had no way of knowing that. So even just same-day transit passengers were included. Everyone on a flight from Melbourne had to self-isolate. Visitors had the choice of staying in a hotel for one night and flying back the next day.

At least by the time I have to take my test on 10th, there won’t be long queues. There won’t be any new arrivals by then!

My brother flew to Melbourne on December 29 as Mum was taken to hospital (not life threatening, but she is 91 and arthritis makes her back seize up). He flew back to Tassie on Jan 1st. I was wondering if he had to self-isolate, so thanks for the information that it’s not required there yet. I don’t mind having to isolate and I do prefer WA being pro-active and conservative, especially consider the rate at which this Melbourne virus has been spreading.

Edit: When the Police rang, I wasn’t asked where I’d been. So no exemptions.

 

[Must...Fly!]

I got tested in March and again in December at drive through sites. I showed my licence and Medicare card. I was asked (in December ) if I’d recently returned from SA, how many people in my household, if any of them had Covid and what my symptoms were. No acknowledgement of previous tests.

I wonder how hard it would be to implement a QR code system.

It would speed things up.

Innovative thinking?

The Feds have gone missing - surely JobKeeper must be reviewed/extended even if only for selected industry groups eg International Tourism and Airlines/Airports will not be back in business by March (or even this year?)

Maybe some targeted relief to those really suffering at the hands of the lunacy of state governments, such as airlines.

Otherwise, force the hand of the states. This is absolutely ridiculous and it's only because of jobkeeper that it's been even considered by states. No blame on feds here - they had to do something back in April.

 

[oz_mark]

The Feds have gone missing - surely JobKeeper must be reviewed/extended even if only for selected industry groups eg International Tourism and Airlines/Airports will not be back in business by March (or even this year?)

I think they have given up, realising the states will do what the states want to do. They need to find a way of pushing the costs back on to the states, then the states may come up with more sophisticated approaches.

 

[I love to travel]

I think the next announcement on Jobkeeper/seeker will not change the states behaviour at all. With the exception of WA, no state is expected to have a good budget outcome. Slightly OT but I predict in March Jobkeeper will go. Small permanent rise in Jobseeker. They can spin that as being socially and fiscally responsible.

 

[Pushka]

Here's a question to anyone who has had a test.

What information were you required to give? And if you went back for another test, would it be the same procedure? Or do they then have you "on file" so to speak?

Licence. Medicare card. Asked why I was there. (Symptoms or just a contact)

Post automatically merged: Jan 3, 2021

I think this had been mentioned previously and many have lost there jobs over it. I’d be very surprised if all states didn’t have similar issues but most are relatively minor breaches that get swept under the carpet

Yes. I think that was reported weeks ago.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Exactly. And a lot of tax at that. We also pay massive Medicare levies, yet for some reason we’re not prepared to let our hospitals do their work. It’s a very bizarre situation.

We are prepared to let hospitals do their work.

But without effective treatments or cure, and the potential for exponential growth in numbers, hospital space is pretty much an irrelevant consideration.

 

[Ric]

An acquaintance who works for NSW public service told me about a month ago that in Sydney most of the positive cases come from US, UK and the Indian sub-continent. He said that is to be expected for two reasons - most of the inward passengers are travelling from those countries and COVID is seriously out of control in those countries.

Maybe a risk analysis on a per country basis can be done and link them to quarantine requirements? e.g. to government controlled facilities or hotel quarantine or home quarantine/isolation, number of days needed for quarantine/isolation; 5? 7? 10? 14? If possible, I can see more Australians getting back much sooner and incurring less expenses re airfare, hotel quarantine expenses etc

Or this goes to the too hard basket? ..... I think I know the answer

 

[dajop]

Maybe a risk analysis on a per country basis can be done and link them to quarantine requirements? e.g. to government controlled facilities or hotel quarantine or home quarantine/isolation, number of days needed for quarantine/isolation; 5? 7? 10? 14? If possible, I can see more Australians getting back much sooner and incurring less expenses re airfare, hotel quarantine expenses etc

Or this goes to the too hard basket? ..... I think I know the answer

Like this one ...

https://safetravel.ica.gov.sg/files/SHN-and-swab-summary.pdf

(SHN = Stay at Home Notice, SDF ~ quarantine hotel).

I am hoping Victoria remains as is so I can return to Singapore with just a Covid test on arrival, but can live with it being lumped in with NSW, which requires returning residents who have travel history to NSW in previous 14 days to isolate at home for 7 days and take a Covid test towards the end of those seven days.

Eminently sensible.

 

[N860CR]

We are prepared to let hospitals do their work.

But without effective treatments or cure, and the potential for exponential growth in numbers, hospital space is pretty much an irrelevant consideration.

No, we’re not.

We do have effective treatments and, provided the current tracing mechanisms remain in place, there is no risk of “overwhelming” the hospital systems.

There are more approaches than either the USA or “eliminate”.

 

[Ric]

Like this one ...

https://safetravel.ica.gov.sg/files/SHN-and-swab-summary.pdf

(SHN = Stay at Home Notice, SDF ~ quarantine hotel).

Eminently sensible.

But do we have eminently sensible decision makers??

 

[lovetravellingoz]

With the Berala BWS clusters evidently officials are indicating that transmission seems to have been from often only quite fleeting contact.

NSW has now switched to mandatory maskwearing inside.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

We do have effective treatments...

If we have effective treatments, how did we have 800 deaths in Victoria? How are people still dying in the UK, USA, Europe?

 

[SydneySwan]

But do we have eminently sensible decision makers??

If only?

 

[N860CR]

If we have effective treatments, how did we have 800 deaths in Victoria?

If we didn’t have effective treatments, why weren’t there more?

There were 800 deaths in Victoria because they occurred in aged care facilities without acute care capability and patients weren’t moved into hospital. The same occurred in the NSW nursing home. This is the same reason people die in aged care of minor virus any other year - they are simply not setup to deal with more acute cases and, to be blunt, we don’t want them to be.

The global recovery rate sits at approximately 97-98% even with gross under reporting of cases. That wouldn’t be the case if there were no treatments.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

But do we have eminently sensible decision makers??

I am sure we do, but one of their eminently sensible decisions would be to not be in politics