The USA has hit 666k deaths, meaning one in every 500 Americans have died of Covid.
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Makes you wonder what the vax rate in some of these HR departments is!
QLD Update: Double donut day. Zero cases of COVID-19 in the community or hotel quarantine.
Presser is from the new vaccination hub at BEC.
Text messages going out to tell residents where their closest centre is whether hub, pharmacy etc.
It seems QLD is preempting an outbreak in the next few weeks from their messaging.
SA update: a sixth truck driver with COVID-19 has been detected in the state. He came from NSW and travelled through the state to deliver timber on Thursday and Friday last week.
The capacity of Adelaide Showgrounds vaccination clinic had doubled from 42 bays to 96, which will allow for 35,000 additional appointments between now and mid-October.
There will also be a pop-up clinic at the Myer Centre at Adelaideâs Rundle Mall from next week.
Itâs nice to see the old Dazzeland finding another use (if it is, in fact, going to be up there). Every so often some company or group will find their way up there to temporarily use the space.
Iâm in two minds about this, on the one hand, the vaccines should be going to where they are needed most in order to save lives, and at the moment that is still NSW and Victoria.
On the other hand, giving extra supplies to Covid free states will mean that they get to their targets quicker and we will be closer to open borders.
I donât think itâs unreasonable to ask that if states such as WA get extra allocations now, there will be an expectation that they will lift their hard border sooner i.e. before Christmas.
At the same time, I donât think itâs unreasonable for WA to keep their hard border until such a time as they have been given the sufficient allocation they need to vaccinate their community.
So now we have WA, NT and TAS effectively on the same page with the state / territory border opening timeframe. I suspect SA and QLD will follow if they manage to remain COVID-free despite the cries of the ânationalâ Sydney media.
It makes me wonder if the feds will throw a curveball come December and bring down international borders after stage 3 to those who are vaccinated which as I see it will effectively make any state border policy null and void.
As for vaccine supply, itâs starting to become apparent that NSWs daily first doses have peaked , so as long as theyâre well stocked for second doses youâd think itâs time for the feds to give some extra supply to other states (particularly VIC) to re-balance things a bit and get things moving faster.
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There are rumblings in the UK This week via several news services that UK govt is possibly getting prepared to maybe introduce some restrictions as early as October if covid hospitalizations stay on the current trajectory
When the second lockdown was announced October 31 last year there were 1400 hospitalizations a day, currently there are 900
Schools are about to head back, life now in September / October really starts heading back indoors in Europe - and they are expecting things to start rising
The NHS is under strain mainly now because itâs dealing with a backlog of 5.5 million people who need treatment who were delayed because the system focused almost entirely on covid for 18 months - and now the backlog is rearing itâs head and itâs ugly
Itâs also expected flu will come back full force this winter - which will be the first time weâve dealt with flu and covid side by side
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I think this will happen.
States donât control their international borders
I think the commonwealth will open them before Christmas
I think personally Mark McGowan is going to come to to regret the day he keeps WA under lock and key. I feel for w.a whom are trapped under the fortress of king konG. THERE IS NO EVIDENCE to suggest this is a smart move or that going hard on borders will stop the virus from community spreading. The virus will eventually make its way through. Australia have lots of community diseases and eventually my old state will probably be hit ten times harder then any other states.
Thank god I donât planning on going back to W.A im the years to come.
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I wonder if perhaps the best way for the UK to manage this, bearing in mind that yet another hard lockdown would be pretty devastating, would be to step back to the Stage 3 settings (COVID-19 Response - Spring 2021 (Summary) - GOV.UK) from June for the October to March period (at least for this winter) when things are at their coldest and riskiest. On top of this, measures around schools could also be tweaked for the winter period as this seems to be the highest risk setting with Delta. With the vaccination rate as high as it is, I would think this would take some of the pressure off the NHS while also maintaining a good balance of social freedoms.
Sounds like half the problem is the fact that they are playing catchup on non-Covid related procedures, so I would imagine once this backlog is dealt with the situation would improve there too.
Or use Vaccine Passports and lockout the Unvaccinated. Most COVID spread is from the Unvaccinated and most people in ICU are in fact Unvaccinated.
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The âunder allocationâ discussion has been around Pfizer - allegedly, requesting additional AZ allocations is possible and reasonably quick.
Theres a bit going on that will make this a continual challenge - while NSWâs first doses appear to have peaked, that excludes a cohort (12-16). Theres potentially an opportunity to lower NSWâs Moderna allocation to up other states allocations as well to try and bridge some of the gap.
But all states should be doing what they can to best use the vaccines available - encourage people to get AZ where itâs safe for them to do so (that may not work in Qld though) and prioritise younger cohorts for Pfizer over the older ones (like Victoria is proposing to do)
It will need the Commonwealth to âpartnerâ with a state to do this though, thanks to the way that HQ is operated at the moment (the Commonwealth facilities wonât be running by December) - NSW seems the logical choice (its the preferred port for many airlines and the state has been keen to reopen)
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SMH story today seems to suggest hotel detention is going away pretty soon for home isolation
There will still be a need for some HQ, at least until alternate hosted quarantine measures are established - not everyone entering Australia will have the capability of isolating at âhomeâ - there are some questions about how it will work for people whoâs homes arent located close to their port of entry (ie outside of the capital city)
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The owner of Adelaideâs Woodville Pizza Bar, Sam Norouzi, has recalled the effects from last Novemberâs lockdown on his family and business to this day.