Australian Reports of the Virus Spread

[Lynda2475]

And so far 20 residents have died.There were no positive cases before that time.

This was discussed at length on last night's 4 Corners - you can catch up on iView. Every staff member who attended the baby shower on site against regulations has since tested positive, and the organiser was a registered nurse. If trained medical staff cant see the risk, how can we rely on someone less trained to do so?

 

[dajop]

I need to pick somewhere I can fly or uber to as I dont drive.

Not sure your view of the NSW rail system, but it's another option, and if it is of interest, maybe have a look at this thread if you haven't already:

The NSW TrainLink Discovery Pass

This thread is for discussion about the NSW TrainLink Discovery Pass: https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/nsw-trainlink-discovery-pass/ The Discovery Pass comes with unlimited train travel within NSW, as well as to Canberra, Melbourne and Brisbane. With this pass you can get six months...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[Pushka]

Some people just don't get it.

Every person infected at baby shower

A decision by staff members to host an unauthorised party at an aged care centre now riddled with COVID-19 cases has been slammed by the facility’s CEO and families of residents.

www.news.com.au

And so far 20 residents have died.There were no positive cases before that time.

Some kind of criminal culpability has to come into play although I guess no one knew they were positive at the time. What is blowing me away is how they can narrow down the patient zero. And a family of four is supposed to be the flash point for the Hotel quarantine issue. So should be easy now to follow that trail.

 

[RooFlyer]

The First Secretary of the PDR Tasmania, Peter Gutwein has just announced in Parliament that the States's borders will be closed until 1 December, at least, as a result of the situation in Victoria. .

 

[Pushka]

The First Secretary of the PDR Tasmania, Peter Gutwein has just announced in Parliament that the States's borders will be closed until 1 December, at least, as a result of the situation in Victoria. .

Havent they heard that each state is different? Seems to be working for SA, Qld and NT well now.

 

[Must...Fly!]

ABC says " Tasmania's Premier has announced the state's borders will remain closed until at least December 1. "

Qld CHO said Queensland Border will no reopen until NSW and Vic can show 30 days (2 incubation periods) of zero community transmission, so if NSW/ACT and Vic are considered together instead of separately (as they should be) then no hope of being allowed to travel domestically except for the ACT and NSW this year.

If someone had told me at the start of 2020 the only trip Id get to take all year is a long weekend in Canberra I wouldn't have believed it. Time to start researching a few days in Byron.

Here's to our hero politicians keeping families of Australia apart until....well, who the hell knows. I doubt any of them will be experiencing economic hardship of any kind either.

What a blight on the country this fight over borders has become.

 

[Lynda2475]

ABC.net.au news reports:

Victoria's coronavirus crisis traced back to seven returned travellers, hotel quarantine inquiry told
By Nicholas McElroy

Ninety per cent of Victoria's current coronavirus cases can be traced back to a family of four that returned to Australia and stayed in Melbourne's Rydges on Swanston hotel, according to a key witness at the state's hotel quarantine inquiry.

Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) epidemiologist Charles Alpren said an adult in the family developed symptoms of the virus on May 9, before three others became symptomatic over the next three days.

All four members of the family eventually tested positive to COVID-19, as did three other people who worked at the hotel and showed symptoms on May 25, Dr Alpren said.

By June 18, a further 17 people connected to the hotel had tested positive and showed epidemiological links to the Rydges outbreak, he said.

"They were either people working in the hotel in a range of roles, or household or social contacts of staff members," Dr Alpren said.

"Approximately 90 per cent or more of current COVID-19 infections in Victoria can be traced to the Rydges hotel."

Dr Alpren said at the time of the Rydges outbreak, there were "few other cases of COVID-19 which had been acquired in Australia".

There were two smaller outbreaks that originated at the Stamford Plaza Hotel, he said — one from a man who returned to Australia on June 1, and another from a couple who landed on June 11.

About a month later, 46 people linked to the Stamford Hotel had acquired the virus in "two distinct chains of transmission".

"I know of no links between cases in the Rydges hotel outbreak and cases involved in the Stamford Plaza outbreak," Dr Alpren said.

"It is likely that a high proportion, approximately 99 per cent of current cases of COVID-19 in Victoria have arisen from Rydges or Stamford."

As of Tuesday morning, there were 7,274 active cases of coronavirus in Victoria.

Dr Alpren said the "transmission event or events" at the hotels were not identified.

But he noted there was "an episode of environmental contamination" in the family of four's room at Rydges on May 18.

"[The event] required assistance from nursing staff to rectify," Dr Alpren wrote in his witness statement.

"There is a suggestion that the family were approved to walk outside their room, during which they were accompanied by security guards. It is possible a transmission event or events happened at that point, however, cases have not been identified that were involved in the environmental contamination or the walk.

"Transmission could have occurred directly from the family to staff or through contamination [of] surfaces in the hotel with which staff then had contact with."

Lawyer Andrew Woods, representing Rydges Hotels, told the inquiry one of the first three staff to contract the virus from the family was a Rydges employee. The other two were not directly employed by the chain.

Because incubation times of COVID-19 patients ranged from two to 14 days, Dr Alpren said there was no evidence to suggest that the Rydges employee was responsible for passing the virus onto the other workers.

"The precise mechanism of their employment is not really something that the epidemiological investigation would need to know," he told the inquiry.

"We need to know the role they do but not exactly who employs them."

 

[dajop]

One thing I wondered from the four corners report, why was there such a heavy need for security guards on each floor? CCTV? Monitoring the limited exit points? Lock out the lifts? etc

 

[jase05]

Oops

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1295589540711653376

 

[RAM]

Am i the only one who thinks its crazy that SA is allowing foreign students to fly in from countries with higher rates than Aus (via Singapore) and pay to hotel quarantine but doesn't afford the same opportunity to its own residents returning from Vic?

Personally i do not think we should be making any exemptions for any international arrivals (except returning citizens) before Australians are allowed to travel domestically. If I cant go to Adelaide from Sydney, why should an Indonesian or Indian student be able to? Someone travelling from Indonesia or India has a significantly higher chance having covid than any Australian (even a Victorian) right now.

Im so sick of exemptions for sports people, celebrities and now foreign students.

Like so many other seemingly illogical political decisions - just follow the money....

It’s all about the money. Education means huge dollars to Australia.

...and the votes.

Certain Universities/TAFEs effectively have a very lucrative business in 'manufacturing' Permanent Residents on the road to Australian Citizenship - pay to play as it were. One NSW based one for example seems to have cornered the market for US citizens becoming Australian Permanent Residents...

Also for the politicians, as was seen with one in the last two days, they see playing up the 'we support international students' card as a vote winner as pretty much only those 'new' Australians know about the effective 'pay for TAFE/Uni course in order to become an Aust Permanent Resident'.

Very lucrative for the so-called 'Higher Education' sector, & the politicians hope to get the votes down the track & from the latest batch who've completed the 'course' to becoming an Australian citizen AND/OR fear being labelled racist if they say or do anything about it.

Also HUGE business in providing over-priced student accomodation. Three separate 18 storey high rise projects announced within 1.5km of UNSW in the last 5 weeks (for example). Something like 1,500 apartments between them & 50 car spaces in total, 500 bike spaces & 400 motor bike spaces. Gets exemption from NSW land tax, bonus height/floorspace, & fraction of required car parking. Despite UNSW access surveys showing that the car ownership rate amongst international students living locally is 1 car to 3 students...

Don't see many bikes nor motorbikes in use though (other than for UBER eats in the last 6 months).

Follow the money.

Also presumably, non citizens who are in Australia to study can have their visas cancelled and be required to leave the country for any breaches of either quarantine or public health rules (around things like wearing masks etc). A huge incentive for compliance. Hopefully. Instead of the slap on the wrist with a feather that locals get for breaching same rules.

Never presume, nor cough/u/me!

Unless they've been convicted with a custodial sentence of > 12 months = virtually untouched. Some statistics released for 2018/19 saw 3 out of 4 visa cancellations over-turned by the administrative tribunals for even the > 12 month group.

Not good advertising to deport 'paying international students'. When was the last time you heard of a drug dealing xx_X student deported after their visa was cancelled? Just have a look at some of the reality TV Australian Customs programs with the 'Please don't bring 15kgs of maggot infested fresh meat, fish & poultry in your luggage together with some seeds & not declare them.'

The 'Holy Dollar' & associated vested interests win over common sense. Such as a prohibition notice issued to the Local Area Commander over an attempted rape of an 11yr old girl in very early one January at a very popular NSW tourist beach - due to the Police Minister et al fearing it would hurt tourism. Walking back from the beach to her home & dragged into an alley but luckily her family had drilled what to do - she screamed FIRE as loud as she could while trying to stamp her heel into the guy's in-step.

That 'attempted' rapist was never identified.

 

[get me outta here]

I can’t imagine that anybody really believes that anybody in charge can actually be trusted to adequately manage what it is that they are supposed to be managing.

And I mean this from the PM down to the major companies managing staff, or not managing staff.

It doesn’t matter what anybody in charge says now to get out of taking responsibility, I don’t really believe them. Who said this for example on 15 March a few days before the Ruby P docked. Whatever it was it was a total failure. (And the inquiry has attributed that blame). However,
“... the arrangements for cruise ships will have the same effect in specific cases where we have Australians on cruise ships. Then there will be some bespoke arrangements that we put in place directly under the command of the Australian Border Force”.

 

[p--and--t]

in AFL quite a number of the players have very high VCE results

Hmmm, perhaps some curriculum changes should be considered, seems from many media reports that VCE success often doesn't translate to good decisions or social responsibility or moral behaviour

 

[SydneySwan]

I can’t imagine that anybody really believes that anybody in charge can actually be trusted to adequately manage what it is that they are supposed to be managing.

And I mean this from the PM down to the major companies managing staff, or not managing staff.

It doesn’t matter what anybody in charge says now to get out of taking responsibility, I don’t really believe them. Who said this for example on 15 March a few days before the Ruby P docked. Whatever it was it was a total failure. (And the inquiry has attributed that blame). However,
“... the arrangements for cruise ships will have the same effect in specific cases where we have Australians on cruise ships. Then there will be some bespoke arrangements that we put in place directly under the command of the Australian Border Force”.

Scomo?

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

NSW total community transmission since before Crossroads is 19. 10 in last 14 days, and 9 older than 14 days.

 

[RAM]

They definitely should speak up.
I know a ton of colleagues at several large Sydney hospitals, all doing the same as mine. Masks on at start of shift. Worn through handovers.
Would be useful to re-educate any that aren’t. Surprising about the med students though as IME they are as group very likely to speak up when things are wrong.

All female & already seen the bad side of medicine.

After the previous Princess ships and their pandemic disasters, that cruise should never had left. I don't know who has the last word on not allowing anyone to board, but it should've been stopped. Princess hopefully will come into disrepute very soon.

Agree - after the Diamond Princess was on our TV screens for so long - how they weren't swayed (other than they'd lose all their money...).

BTW - that 2nd cruise make-up of domestic/international passengers is nothing unusual. Have heard talk of US citizens on the 2nd cruise who flew back on Q to the US & spread CV in the States - looking at legal action as they booked in the US so many more legal avenues available.

 

[Pushka]

BTW - that 2nd cruise make-up of domestic/international passengers is nothing unusual. Have heard talk of US citizens on the 2nd cruise who flew back on Q to the US & spread CV in the States - looking at legal action as they booked in the US so many more legal avenues available.

Absolutely. But somehow those who did query prior to getting onboard were told that because it was Australia to NZ then it was considered by Princess to be of little risk. They did not go on to say that, by the way, 50% of the passengers dont live in either country.

 

[RooFlyer]

Havent they heard that each state is different? Seems to be working for SA, Qld and NT well now.

Shouldn’t you be out on a beach somewhere? No, I’m not jealous, not at all.

Unfortunately, the great majority of Tasmanians are happy to have the drawbridge stay up.

Going to introduce some scheme ( free govt money) for us to holiday in the state, something like the NT scheme. As I no longer pay tax, I’m all in favour of government hand outs for me to holiday. Saffire would be nice.

 

[Pushka]

Shouldn’t you be out on a beach somewhere? No, I’m not jealous, not at all.

Unfortunately, the great majority of Tasmanians are happy to have the drawbridge stay up.

Going to introduce some scheme ( free govt money) for us to holiday in the state, something like the NT scheme. As I no longer pay tax, I’m all in favour of government hand outs for me to holiday. Saffire would be nice.

I have been here today and I have sunburnt feet. But - our flight from Brisbane had better not be diverted to Melbourne or we would not be allowed to go home. Could be a mutiny on the plane as we will all be in the same boat, umm, plane. And if to Sydney then we would have to self iso and have an immediate Covid test and another one 12 days later. Even if just in transit at the airport.

 

[DC3]

Two women from South Australia caught doing the wrong thing in Perth:

Woman who skipped hotel quarantine to attend party 'laughed at police and hung up', court hears

Two women allegedly left hotel quarantine to attend a party at an apartment in Perth after flying into WA without a permit, and one laughed at police who rang to check on her, a court is told.

www.abc.net.au

 

[Pushka]

Two women from South Australia caught doing the wrong thing in Perth:

Woman who skipped hotel quarantine to attend party 'laughed at police and hung up', court hears

Two women allegedly left hotel quarantine to attend a party at an apartment in Perth after flying into WA without a permit, and one laughed at police who rang to check on her, a court is told.

www.abc.net.au

Throw them in jail. We dont want them either. And they kill it for the rest of us. But how the heck were they able to exit the airport? All of our papers were checked by Fed Police before we could exit into the airport in Cairns and we could see the line up of Police waiting for flights arriving into Adelaide so surely Perth had the same?