A couple of other interesting things about Tasmania: (well their cases at least)
They have the lowest amount of tests carried out
I donāt think this would have the impact that the FB keyboard warriors would claim it would though.
Many of the cases have been associated with people returning from cruise ships and they did go into isolation.
There is still no evidence of community transfer.
Many people claim this is inaccurate due to the low testing rates but I do feel that thereās a lot of people just with standard cold and flu and blaming the coronavirus.
I do hope that people follow the closed border messages and donāt come on the Spirit (which is meant to be locked down, but Iām not sure) and if people do isolate when confirmed or suspected and hopefully Tasmania might be able to make it through this ok. I do think theyāre in a very good position currently compared to other states.
The PM says that it wonāt matter where you live, everyone who returns from overseas will spend two weeks in quarantine. If someone lives in Tasmania, but returns to Australia through Melbourne, that traveller will have to stay in Melbourne for two weeks.
This forced quarantine is a good thing, given more than two-thirds of cases in Aus have been returning travellers. Free hotel, food etc. Sounds like a holiday to meā¦ I wouldnāt complain!
ā¦one of the consistent messages has been that people who are able to should work from home.
Employers from across the private sector have responded to the call.
It is a move totally in keeping with Prime Minister Scott Morrisonās exhortation for people to stay home unless absolutely necessary to limit the spread of COVID-19.
So reports that many public servants who want to do the same as their private sector counterparts are being knocked back or stonewalled by their managers and agencies seems at the very least befuddling.
ā¦workers face intransigence from managers rigidly applying narrow remote work criteria.
ā¦ CanberraTimes has been told that even where arrangements are in place to reduce or eliminate physical public interaction by redirecting all inquiries to phone or online services, staff are often still required to come to the office.
Frustrating that this appalling situation is continuing, and a large percentage of federal public servants are based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, etc.
Of course (as said in the article) working from home canāt be done for many public-facing roles like Centrelink & Medicare offices.
However I donāt get this bit of the article:
This tardiness may be in part due to a desire to have staff on hand for rapid deployment to areas of high demand in the public service.
Why would working at home make it more difficult to tell staff come back into the office (or another office) when needed? Nothing really moves fast in government, and it wouldnāt take an hour to get anywhere in Canberra (even before the COVID-19 reduction in traffic).
(PS: Iām unsure if this fits better here or in the Impact thread.)
My younger brother works at the Australian Taxation Office at Docklands. Since last week many of his colleagues were allowed to work from home, and yesterday he followed suit and is working from my family home.
Images of st kilda beach today are just disgusting. People lazing around in groups all over the beach with no regard for their fellow citizens. Appalling behavior. Dan Andrews needs to shut the beaches down there.
Is it as bad as people are making it out to be though? Compare it to a similar day with similar weather a few weeks ago and there would be significantly less out there. I often find these photos are skewed to a small section or handful of people and donāt necessarily represent that there are heaps of people out there. Media outlets will make out like itās the case though.
Iāve been going to the local park in the evenings because I live in an apartment and itās the only place that I can get outside to exercise. It seems pretty busy in the evenings too but itās not surprising as places like that are the one bit of freedom we feel like we have to get outside. Everyone at the park are still mostly respecting space and sticking within their small groups so I donāt see it an issue. I generally find an empty spot and do my workout there. I would go absolutely insane if I didnāt get out of my apartment and to the park at night so until there is a law to stop me from doing it I will continue to do so, with social distancing obviously at front of mind whilst doing it.
I do think people are stupid to even consider going to popular beaches though regardless if they are busy or not. If you are going to do it (and thereās no law that says we are locked inside) at least drive out to the middle of nowhere and find a secluded beach somewhere.
I only just got the pathethic AusGov COVID-19 SMS (at 16:15 AEDT); on Optus.
Wow. Imagine if there was a crisis and they actually needed to get a meaningful message out quickly.
Well according to Dan Andrews itās dangerous and people are being selfish by putting lives at risk. Clearly itās an issue rather than just some media beat up.
If people want to go down there go down by yourself. Go for a swim and then go home. No need to congregate.