COVID-19: Discussion of Impact 😷

[MelbTV]

Victoria’s latest numbers -

Good signs that it’s zero new local cases again.

VicGovDHHS (VicGovDHHS)

VicGovDHHS (VicGovDHHS)

VicGovDHHS (VicGovDHHS)

[OnAir]

COVID-19: Brisbane, SEQ and/or QLD Lockdowns

Greater Brisbane (Brisbane, Logan, Redlands, Ipswich, Moreton) will be entering a 3 day lockdown from 6pm tonight to 6pm Monday because of the UK strain of the virus being discovered. Masks mandated if leaving home. [20210108080421][9HD_Brisbane_20210108_0755.ts_000708869]

[MelbTV]

Victoria’s recommendation to screen all hotel quarantine staff daily was approved by all States and Territories at National Cabinet today.

Sumeyya Ilanbey (sumeyyailanbey)

[TV.Cynic]

National Cabinet makes masks compulsory on all flights, requires UK...

[Tom_TV7]

@TV.Cynic

Passengers on all domestic and international flights will have to wear masks

Only took them this long to implement this.

[BJT2]

I know right…, it’s like spot the obvious.

From today, all UK passengers need to complete a negative Covid test before boarding a flight to Australia.

But this new strain is now spreading around the world (not just in the UK) and its predicted to take hold within the USA in the next couple of weeks.

Shouldn’t testing be made mandatory for all international passengers, prior to boarding any flight?

[MrJ]

Looks like the UK strain is taking off in Ireland:

Also you can see why Israel is racing ahead with their vaccine rollout, last time figures were this bad they had a total lockdown with a 500m radius.

[Tom_TV7]

@BJT2

Shouldn’t testing be made mandatory for all international passengers, prior to boarding any flight?

Typical of our government. They go far but not far enough.

[Squee]

@BJT2

Shouldn’t testing be made mandatory for all international passengers, prior to boarding any flight?

I would suggest the reason the government hasn’t gone all out with this is that they would be at high risk of having the existing commercial airlines dropping services if such requirements are made mandatory. They don’t want to be put in a position where they have to pay Qantas to carry out repatriation flights if the likes of Emirates / Qatar / SQ cancel passenger services leaving the country with near zero international flights.

[Pranks]

I’d be more worried about it leaking in via the US. Considerable flights inbound directly from the States to all east coast airports daily and it appears that’s where much of the leakage is coming from, namely American based flight crew. Much of the UK/Euro flights are crews based in Dubai/Qatar/Singapore, not living in these virus ridden places like as US/UK. I’m not sure if BA are still flying in via Singapore

[turdall]

@BJT2

Shouldn’t testing be made mandatory for all international passengers, prior to boarding any flight?

Yes it should and I don’t understand why they aren’t doing it.

[turdall]

@Squee

would be at high risk of having the existing commercial airlines dropping services if such requirements are made mandatory

But this requirement is something the rest of the world have. A friend just traveled to South America and had to provide a negative test before boarding.

[MelbTV]

Three days of zero new local cases for Victoria.

Good stuff, keep it up .

VicGovDHHS (VicGovDHHS)

[turdall]

So pleased with this. I would assume everyone who was sitting next to the one from the Boxing Day test would have been tested by now.

[JohnsonTV]

Exactly 2 Weeks After Christmas, Los Angeles County Hit By Dreaded Surge On...

[Tom_TV7]

I really don’t want this to happen but I suspect Washington DC will be next given the events of Jan 6.

[BJT2]

Yes it just seems to be getting worse and worse overseas.

[MrJ]

Good to see national cabinet give up on their return traveller aspirations and slash capacity. The risk assessment of maintaining that seemed way off to me.

[bacco007]

@MrJ

Good to see national cabinet give up on their return traveller aspirations and slash capacity

Is it though? Australia’s attitude towards its citizens overseas is not great at the best of times, but the way that they’ve been treated during the pandemic leaves a lot to be desired.

This response is taking the simplest response to an issue that the Federal Government has simply walked away their responsibilities for - we should make more of this, but the reality is that Australia’s attitude towards this appears to be “fuck you, i’ve got mine”