COVID-19: Discussion of Impact 😷

[stilesykenny]

Vaccine is probably 1 to 2 years away.

[Chris]

@hailey

I stand by going into lockdown if it helps stop cases, but I’m worried about how the economy would cope. Sadly, the only way we can stop COVID is to develop a vaccine.

This is my concern. How much longer can we keep on doing this? Are 500 active cases and less than 30 in hospital justifiable to shutting down an entire state of 5.5million? I agree with localised lockdowns where required as that is what they always said could happen and I’d happily do it if I were in a hotspot… but to shut down the state again will set us back to where we were in March. It’s not a long term solution if we need to live with this virus. I get that it would probably be easier to shut the entire state down logistically (as it’s taking a lot of resources to maintain these suburb lockdowns) but I’m starting to increasingly get frustrated with the numbers and thinking if it has to go statewide again the Govt hsant done their job for it to get do out of control again. I guess let’s just see what happens…

[JBar]

@JohnsonTV

I wonder what the Coalition or the Greens will do if they are in government.

How were lockdowns any different in states that have Coalition governments?

[Troiboi]

@Chris

the Govt hsant done their job for it to get do out of control again.

It’s not the govt who have been not following the health rules and spreading this virus. It’s purely down to the public not heeding the warnings and not caring.

This thing isn’t political. If the Opposition was in power right now, they’d be in the exact same situation.

[turdall]

All governments have been quite strict through this pandemic. I am sure if SA was seeing 100+ cases a day they would go into stage 3 again too and that is a liberal government.

[Jeffmister]

@MelbTV

If the public ended up doing the right thing we wouldn’t be in the mess that we’re in now.

@Troiboi

It’s purely down to the public not heeding the warnings and not caring.

People doing the wrong thing has contributed to the position Melbourne currently finds itself in. However, it is not the sole factor - the government also has accept some of the blame/responsibly because of how they bungled the hotel quarantine program. Yes they didn’t cause the protocol breaches but it seems like the private security staff weren’t properly trained

[William_C]

or perhaps never and I won’t get it.

[BJT2]

This virus is spreading fast and we’re currently in a worse position than we were in March/April. If they can’t get this under control quickly, then yes the Melbourne metro area will need to be shut down again

It’s only a matter of time until this spreads to other parts of the city and into country Victoria. It will find away past state borders.

[stilesykenny]

Maybe, but we have to try to stay positive William.

[dxnerd]

Let’s hope that cold fronts are the only thing spreading north out of Victoria over the coming weeks.

I fear creeping authoritarianism more than most but I reckon a temporary lockdown of the Melbourne metro area may be required unfortunately. The isolation of Sydney and Melbourne is something I prepared for back in March when I moved down to Bungendore; things were done a little swifter than I wanted.

[Chris]

@Jeffmister

However, it is not the sole factor - the government also has accept some of the blame/responsibly because of how they bungled the hotel quarantine program.

Yes this. Some people have been doing the wrong thing but the Hotel Quarantine issues is a significant factor for these outbreaks. I also feel that household visitors limits jumped too quickly and the fact that mobile testing sites are at the biggest shopping centres probably hasn’t been the smartest move either, given stats show a lot of people shop then get tested or vice versa. If we go for a statewide lockdown then suppression clearly isn’t the strategy. Erradication must be.

[Troiboi]

So are you saying the hotel quarantine bungle is connected to the shut down of the towers in Nth Melb and Flemington?

[SydneyCityTV]

With the amount of coronavirus vaccines in development, I’d be extremely surprised if at least one (if not several) of them didn’t work.

Of course, it’ll probably be some time before any vaccine comes to market because they’ve still got to go through trials and safety tests, etc.

[JeepersCreepers]

I agree that it appears training was an issue, but it seems a lack of common sense is another problem. Everyone is told to keep 1.5m away from other people, yet some of the workers carpooled into work each day. Surely they don’t need to be told that this isn’t ok. Then there’s the stories alleging that some of the guards accepted bribes to allow people to go shopping. These people are in quarantine for a reason, so why on earth would they let them out? Stupidity at its finest.

[Aurora]

@Chris

Woolworths today I was told that I had too many “frozen meals” and could only have two… When the fridges were fully stocked. I buy these for my lunches during the week and now I need to do multiple trips just to get them which is annoying. I don’t think frozen meals were ever limited last time and I have never seen them low in stock.

I can confirm they were. I was similarly screwed a few months ago when the limit to two was in place.

[Chris]

@Troiboi

So are you saying the hotel quarantine bungle is connected to the shut down of the towers in Nth Melb and Flemington?

I don’t know who that comment is directed at as I can’t see anyone in this thread saying that. Although now that you mention it this problem that has been identified in housing commisions is in suburbs that border onto other lockdown suburbs… so it’s possible that there is a link. Remember with the Cedar meats outbreak that most of the cases for the following weeks in Vic could somehow be linked back to it. So it’s possible.

Edit: Just to add I just read that the outbreak in the housing commissions was discovered from contact tracing. So that means there is a very good chance that some of these other outbreaks that link back to hotel quarantines in the area trace to the housing commissions.

[Jeffmister]

@JeepersCreepers

I agree that it appears training was an issue, but it seems a lack of common sense is another problem. Everyone is told to keep 1.5m away from other people, yet some of the workers carpooled into work each day. Surely they don’t need to be told that this isn’t ok. Then there’s the stories alleging that some of the guards accepted bribes to allow people to go shopping. These people are in quarantine for a reason, so why on earth would they let them out? Stupidity at its finest.

Exactly - not to mention the reports of some guards working at multiple hotels and (as Chris mentioned) the rapid increase in the household visitor limit are decisions which common sense would suggest wasn’t a good idea

[Chris]

@Jeffmister

the rapid increase in the household visitor limi

I said this at the time that I don’t think many people were screaming for more than 5 visitors. We went 2 months with 0 visitors, then when it went to 5 I think most people were happy with that and would’ve stuck that out for a while, but within 3 weeks it had gone from 0 to 20. It encouraged people to want to throw big parties and large gatherings which has clearly spread this virus.

[Willricho89]

66 new cases across Victoria in the last 24 hours.

[Willricho89]

Change that 74.