One solution is that we need a national quarantine facility away from major urban hubs if thatâs the case.
1 Like
9mminutes ago
By Michael Doyle
KEY EVENT
WA Premier Mark McGowan says the decision to reopen to NSW will be reviewed
WA Premier Mark McGowan said the situation in Sydney was concerning, and that the Government would make a decision on re-opening to New South Wales in the coming days.
âThe Chief Health Officer is seeking further advice from New South Wales and will continue to monitor the situation,â he said.
"If the CHO recommends that we delay opening to NSW, well then that is the decision we will make.
âWe donât have enough information at this time to make that decision, but we expect to get more information over the coming days to make that decision.â
Mr McGowan said he expected a deadline for the decision would be the coming weekend.
âI realise this is very disruptive to many people, and very problematic to many people because they donât know whatâs happening,â he said.
âBut at the same time, we have to make decisions that are based upon health advice and based upon the safety of the state.â
Earlier this week, Mr McGowan said the border with NSW and Victoria would reopen on on December 8 as long as there was not another outbreak.
Mr McGowan also said they will be a wait to see what the test results are for the workers and go from there
Queensland Health Minister Yvette DâAth said she had spoken with her counterpart in NSW this morning.
âThe government is keeping a close eye on what is happening in Sydney,â she told Queenslandâs Parliament.
"We are aware that (the tests for) five immediate family members of the person who tested positive have all come back negative and they are now in quarantine.
âAt this point, there are no proposed changes to any of the restrictions in Queensland.â
Thereâs inadequate health facilities in both of these locations if something did happen to an active case, risks would also be introduced in the transportation of arrivals to these rural or remote locations (especially Christmas Island).
Using Howard Springs in the NT is only viable because itâs so close to Darwin.
2 Likes
It sounds like weâre going to have to wait and see what WAâs word is on Victoria, Iâm afraid.
WA Premier Mark McGowanâs remarks this afternoon suggest what happens in NSW will impact the decision on Victoria.
Hereâs the exchange:
Reporter: Will it affect Victoria as well?
McGowan: âWell weâll monitor that, again as I said over the last week these sorts of things, and if there is an outbreak over east you treat it on a case-by-case basis. So weâll just see how big it is, how many people are involved, whether they have it under control before we make a final decision.
Reporter: Just to clarify what you were saying before⌠will that mean Victoria as well will be under the same regulations?
McGowan: "We will take the advice of the CHO in relation to what is appropriate and what the spread is, so that will be guidance the we will use and that is something we will get over the coming days.â
McGowan sounds like he wants the border between Vic and NSW closed. Heâs gonna shut it down again. Just you watch.
Itâll all come down to whether it has spread any further than this one individual in the community. Straight from the WA Government:
What defines a community case?
The Chief Health Officer has defined a community case as being from either an unknown source or where the infected contacts were not in quarantine.
As it stands, this one individual case would not be considered community derived. Yes, this is different terminology than other states. If NSW are lucky and thereâs no community spread from this one case, the border decision wonât change (however I expect they might delay it a few days).
Keeping VIC at âlow riskâ and requiring 14 days isolation would contradict all that has been stated so far about the controlled border, not to mention thereâs far more inter-border travel between NSW and QLD anyway.
4 Likes
They also havenât done that previously - for example the Queensland to regional NSW border has been open, but WA are closed to the whole of NSW, but open to Queensland.
So no reason to block Victoria even if they do to NSW.
So if this comes from hotel quarantine, it shows that cleaners in places like WA will also be at risk of an outbreak. So itâs a bit hypocritical if they close the borders.
Tennis players will be allowed to train for 5 hrs a day during their quarantine.
I donât like it, the players have shown they cant be trusted after what happened in Serbia. They might be accusomed to the weak measures taken during the US and French open and they are mostly coming from countries that are not taking covid seriously, seems to be an assumption that they will get over their culture shock immediately.
1 Like
The US death toll from the coronavirus reached 2,760 in one day as of Wednesday evening, surpassing the previous peak on 15 April, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.
Victoria has recorded no new cases for the 35th consecutive day.
3 Likes
This is quite an interesting read and I really liked this part:
âWhat we donât want is people to be fearful of talking to contact tracers, of giving them all the information they need,â Professor Leask said.
"[This] is more likely to happen when you have a situation like this when they get resoundingly condemned in the public arena.
I think South Australia might start that âfearâ. Their response was very inadequate and has a bullying nature that we should not be encouraging.
2 Likes
While Europe is stabilizing due to better management of the virus, the Unites States keeps breaking new records and driving the worlds total confirmed cased to new highs. Highest âdaily new casesâ and âhighest daily deathâ rates since the pandemic began.
seems america has hit the grim milestone of a September 11 death toll every day.
The big peak of the week usually comes on Friday, tomorrows numbers will be terrible.
Health Minister Martin Foley also confirmed to the public accounts and estimates committee that the current State of Emergency which expires on Sunday, was to be extended to enable the enforecement of the new hotel quarantine regime, which begins on Monday.
the Chief Health Officer said his advice to the government on masks had changed and would change again.
âWe are clearly moving through a phase where the utility of masks becomes less and less and we have changed the advice on mask wearing from universal mask wearing indoors and outdoors to primarily focused on wearing indoors,â Professor Sutton said.
âThatâs the current state of advice, as well as where it is impossible or where one is unable to appropriately physically distance when outside.
âIt is to be determined this weekend, but we will move to a phase where there is even more limited use of masks in public.â
The Chief Health Officer said his advice that would underpin Sundayâs announcement had not yet been âframed definitivelyâ.
In the past 47 days millions of Americans have contracted COVID-19 and thousands have, sadly, died from it. As it stands today the US has recorded 14.1 million cases and 276,000 deaths.
The New York Times reported that on Wednesday, US hospitals housed a record 100,226 patients dealing with COVID-19. According to 2020 figures, that equates to the entire population of Bendigo, Victoria.
All. Of. Bendigo.
Anyone know if buffets are opening back up in NSW? I could smash a buffet.