These are the stories which are giving me the shits. People who donāt get it. When talk of Victoria became a hot topic and borders were threatening to be closed there were heaps of people trying to escape - thatās the worst possible thing and is only going to prolong things.
It sucks to be in a hotspot area but if people do the right thing they can beat it and ensure it doesnāt get too big - ignoring it and travelling across three states potentially infecting a whole heap more along the way is a really dick move.
Tasmania now has mandatory quarantine in hotels again for anyone who has been in Victoria but there were two people arrested on the weekend for not self isolating prior to it being in a hotel. One in Ulverstone where the Police issued a warrant and he faced the court on Saturday morning and another one in Hobart where it was a woman who had been out several times also.
Iād imagine that Queensland may be getting a little nervous, I hope things are ok there, weāve just started trying to look to another holiday (after having three cancelled already with Covid) up in Cairns and FNQ. Fingers crossed we might be able to get somewhere at some point.
Just had a look at the latest government fact sheet.
Australia will hit the 10000 case mark tomorrow. A remarkable achievement considering how quickly we hit 6000 cases before flattening the curve and taking ages to reach 7000 but this last rise up to 10000 has been very sudden. Hopefully though things can be flattened again and eased off soon, hopefully before things reach around 12000.
Considering US states are recording more than 10000 every day itās good that weāve been able to take 7 months to reach this point.
17 ICU cases in Vic though is a worry, hopefully they can recover but thereās likely to be some more deaths on the way and with a few nursing homes affected itās going to be tough.
At the moment the virus has been pretty much eliminated from WA, SA, NT and TAS. QLD and ACT might have a few underlying cases. NSWs is too early to tell where itās sitting.
It would be Victoria that would need to go into a stage 4 lockdown to eliminate the virus completely. This would probably need to be for 2 months. If thatās what needs to be done, then so be it.
but i dont think thats the right idea though because trigger warning there would be heaps of people with mental health issues who might not be able to handle the extreme lock down . how would the mental health issues be delt??? i mean they are sugguesting that the lock down continue for melbourne and the mitchell shire.
This Victorian disaster I think has proven that elimination is the way to go.
It is too disruptive to slowly open public places back up, only for the doors to slam shut when some breach has been detected too late. The uncertainty is what kills businesses. Iām sure that fair warning of a 4 week closure is better for businesses to handle than rolling closures over the next 2 years until we get a vaccine. Elimination domestically is the only course that makes sense, IMO.
so would you have the whole of vic or as the article suggested keep the lockdown in melbourne and mitchell shire going. bare in mind that most of regional vic dont have many cases or no cases at all
The Victorian case of it escaping quarantine hotels shows how difficult elimination would be - it would take just one slip up to undo elimination - as weād still be taking in thousands of returned citizens and eventually likely having some business or education travel allowed. NZ might be able to manage it, theyāve got proportionally smaller travel numbers - but I think Australia will be in a position where weāll have a small simmer of cases for months to come.
We should be using this time to find better solutions than hotel quarantine - more purpose built facilities not in high traffic cbd areas, with specifically trained staff and on site medical facilities.
We might be able to achieve practical elimination, but lockdowns to achieve it as a policy goal when itād be so easily undone is a hard sell.
Can all International flights just be grounded for a few months now? I mean everyone has had ample time to get back home. I recall the made scramble back in early April. Well itās now been 4 months since then.
Qatar, Emirates and Etihad are still feeding the main cities with daily services. Still a lot of connectivity to get back.
I assume those who canāt get home donāt have the cash to do it and are they awaiting government repatriation flights?
There was someone on TV the other week claiming they could not get seats back home from Delhi. There is ample seats from the Middle Eastern 3 that are flying with connections. Some people just try on the taxypayer to bail them out.
There was a guy on Sunrise Saturday who is in the Phillipines and has been trying to get home for 3 months (apparently). I think that maybe was a repatriation thing.
Gathering returning people in concentrated locations isnt a great idea (the cruise ships and high density housing outbreaks confirm this) and its a surprise that we havent seen greater outbreaks of the virus in these facilities.
That said, there arent many other options - home quarantine is difficult to control, stopping arrivals is questionable
Hong Kong is reintroducing strict social distancing rules after recent spike in COVID-19 infections, which was described as the third wave by local media. Most measures are similar to those currently in force in metropolitan Melbourne, the differences are that wearing masks on public transport is compulsory, and that you can still dine-in for breakfast and lunch.
The spike in cases also caused the annual Hong Kong Book Fair, which was due to start tomorrow, to be postponed to a later date.
