Australian Reports of the Virus Spread

[lovetravellingoz]

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Update on the new case in Victoria, including what is occurring in SA, from Spurrier.

Victorian man who tested positive for COVID–19 was on same flight as Adelaide hotel case

South Australia's Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier says it is most likely a Victorian man, who tested positive to COVID-19 yesterday, caught it while staying in hotel quarantine in Adelaide, despite being on the same flight as another man who tested positive.

www.abc.net.au

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Well so far today no new expousre sites have been added in Victoria (The railway sites were added yesterday).

Also in today's update: All of the man's household contacts have so far tested negative, along with some contacts from the restaurant and business.

No other positive test reported (ie after midnight) so far which is a good sign as the more immediate contacts would have all had their tests rushed through.

The main concern is the restaurant as not everyone attending registered (There was both a QR and manual system available). But at least all so far tested from the restaurant have been negative including presumably whomever the case was dining with for 3 hours.

 

[bcworld]

...there is also further info on the train journeys he took. Initially you would look at them and think he travelled on near empty trains...into the city at 5pm, back out at 10pm...but unfortunately these will have coincided with AFL crowds heading to and from the MCG. I know I was on a packed train from Richmond following the AFL a few weeks ago...and I would estimate mask compliance was <20%. Hopefully this guy was one of the 20%!

 

[lovetravellingoz]

...there is also further info on the train journeys he took. Initially you would look at them and think he travelled on near empty trains...into the city at 5pm, back out at 10pm...but unfortunately these will have coincided with AFL crowds heading to and from the MCG. I know I was on a packed train from Richmond following the AFL a few weeks ago...and I would estimate mask compliance was <20%. Hopefully this guy was one of the 20%!

Yes as I mentioned the railway trips were added yesterday.

Foley today commented:

"Given that it was the aftermath of the Richmond-Geelong game we are working with the AFL to get messages through all of their clubs and the data … get that material out to what we would expect to be many hundreds of people on that train," he said.


For those outside Vic, to attend a game you have to have a reserved seat via and supply contact details.


One would expect the testing numbers today, to be reported tomorrow, will be on the large side. I think the trains were added yesterday at about 4pm???

EDIT. Just looking at the VicDHHS Tweets about 9.40PM last night. So train travellers would have been getting tested from today.

 

[jakeseven7]

You stated a desire for NSW testing to react more strongly and that NSW community support was lacking.

However the test rate for NSW and Vic yesterday (the most recent data point) was near identical, this demonstrates no current material difference in attitude towards testing. And NSW still holds the record by a long way for the most number of test conducted on a single day.

People will only turn out for testing if they have been at an exposure site or have symptoms. Reporting shows good compliance for close and casual contact testing. People quite rightly dont have any need to be tested if they havent been to a site of concern and have no symptoms.

Strange you are so concerned about NSW testing when it is significantly ahead of the national average.

I wasn’t taking about yesterdays numbers stop breathlessly jumping to conclusions all the time. Take a breath and calm down.

 

[suze2000]

28 mins according to Google maps. A lot of people seem to think Howard Springs is in the middle of nowhere...like Woomera or something. In reality it is essentially the edge of Palmerston...the nearest Maccas is 2 mins drive away and it has housing and a school on its boundary.

It might be 28 mins out of peak hour, but 13 years ago, I was stuck in peak hour between Palmerston and Darwin and it took at least 40.

Also, both the Western Hospital and Geelong are more than capable of dealing with the small number of cases that would need hospitalisation. I'd have more concerns about RDH and the vulnerable indigenous population if people from Howard Springs need to go there.

And as someone else already pointed out, the population pool for staff is far greater in the west and southwest of Melbourne than it is in Darwin/Palmerston.

And surely it's a simple matter to take off the plane out of Avalon and land it in MEL to unload the freight itself. (add the cost of fuel for that to the airfares the people are paying)

 

[Lynda2475]

From SMH:

Testing confirms Melbourne man picked up COVID-19 in hotel quarantine​

Genomic sequencing has confirmed the Victorian man who tested positive for COVID-19 contracted the virus while in hotel quarantine in Adelaide.

The Victorian Department of Health confirmed the results on Wednesday after Victoria recorded its 75th consecutive day of no locally acquired cases.

The three household contacts of the man have tested negative to the virus and remain in isolation. The health department says testing continues for primary close contacts across several sites in Epping, Altona North and the CBD. No additional positive results have been reported so far.

Those affected include:

• Twenty-eight patrons and staff who attended the Curry Vault CBD exposure site. They have been identified as primary close contacts and 16 negative test results have so far been returned.
• Seventeen people who attended the Pact Altona North exposure site. These people have been identified as primary close contacts and 11 negative test results have so far been returned.
• Eight people who attended the Indiagate Epping exposure site. They have also been identified as primary close contacts and five negative test results have so far been returned.
• An additional 28 people who attended the Woolworths Epping exposure site have been identified as primary close contacts. Nine negative test results have so far been returned.

The people who have yet to receive negative results have been asked to self-isolate.

 

[Lynda2475]

Also from SMH:

SA Police begin QR code crackdown​

South Australia will crackdown on people avoiding QR codes as the state’s police commissioner warns “leakage” from their hotel quarantine program is unavoidable.

SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens announced a seven-day operation to send police to SA businesses to warn and potentially fine patrons and owners who don’t use QR codes.

A Victorian man tested positive for COVID-19 this week after leaving hotel quarantine in Adelaide with authorities concerned he contracted the virus just before his departure.

Mr Stevens said people must continue to use the codes as outbreaks were still possible despite having next to no instances of COVID-19 in the community. His warning mirrors those of authorities around Australia who are concerned about people beginning to stop using QR codes.

We just need to look back on the outbreak, the leakage that we’ve had from a South Australian hotel in the last few days,” Mr Stevens said.

“It’s a stark reminder to us that COVID-19 is in our community. We are currently containing it within many hotels, but there was no guarantee that we won’t have an outbreak in the future so we need the capacity to be able to quickly trace anyone who’s been possibly exposed and deal with those people as they need to be dealt with, whether that be quarantine or COVID testing or isolating until they have a negative test.

“The QR codes give us an enhanced ability to do that. Failure to QR means diminishing our capacity to respond.”

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Extract from VIC DHHS Daily Update

Update: Wollert COVID-19 case​

Media release
12 May 2021

Victoria was notified of one new case of coronavirus yesterday.

Genomic sequencing results on this new case have been reported to the Department, and they support the hypothesis that the Victorian case acquired COVID-19 in an interstate hotel quarantine facility.




Public health teams have spent the last 24 hours identifying, testing, tracing and isolating people who have been in contact with the positive COVID-19 case in Victoria.

The positive case has been interviewed and exposure sites in Melbourne, Epping and Altona North, plus a number of train stations and train services, are published at Case alerts - public exposure sites.

All three of the individual’s household Primary Close Contacts have been tested and returned negative results. As Primary Close Contacts, they remain in isolation. In addition, as of midday 12 May:

• 28 patrons and staff who attended the Curry Vault CBD exposure site have been identified as Primary Close Contacts, and 16 negative test results have so far been returned.
• 17 people who attended the Pact Altona North exposure site have been identified as Primary Close Contacts, and 11 negative test results have so far been returned.
• 8 people who attended the Indiagate Epping exposure site have been identified as Primary Close Contacts, and 5 negative test results have so far been returned.
• 28 people who attended the Woolworths Epping exposure site have been identified as Primary Close Contacts, and 9 negative test results have so far been returned.

While these locations represent the Department’s highest priority exposure sites, work continues on other sites which require people who attended to get tested and stay isolated until they return a negative result.

This includes two train services on the Craigieburn Line. Messages are being sent to AFL ticket holders (returning home on trains after Friday night football) and registered myki holders linked to these services. Messages have also been sent to 396,000 people who live in communities near exposure sites.

Department of Health and Human Services Victoria | Coronavirus update for Victoria – 12 May 2021

Victoria was notified of one new case of coronavirus yesterday.

www.dhhs.vic.gov.au

Note also that some people at non-exposure sites (ie not within the 48 hr period before symptoms) have been asked to get tested, but are not required to isolate unlike anyone who was at the exposure sites at the designated times.

 

[nutwood]

Also from SMH:

SA Police begin QR code crackdown​

South Australia will crackdown on people avoiding QR codes as the state’s police commissioner warns “leakage” from their hotel quarantine program is unavoidable.

SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens announced a seven-day operation to send police to SA businesses to warn and potentially fine patrons and owners who don’t use QR codes.

A Victorian man tested positive for COVID-19 this week after leaving hotel quarantine in Adelaide with authorities concerned he contracted the virus just before his departure.

Mr Stevens said people must continue to use the codes as outbreaks were still possible despite having next to no instances of COVID-19 in the community. His warning mirrors those of authorities around Australia who are concerned about people beginning to stop using QR codes.

We just need to look back on the outbreak, the leakage that we’ve had from a South Australian hotel in the last few days,” Mr Stevens said.

“It’s a stark reminder to us that COVID-19 is in our community. We are currently containing it within many hotels, but there was no guarantee that we won’t have an outbreak in the future so we need the capacity to be able to quickly trace anyone who’s been possibly exposed and deal with those people as they need to be dealt with, whether that be quarantine or COVID testing or isolating until they have a negative test.

“The QR codes give us an enhanced ability to do that. Failure to QR means diminishing our capacity to respond.”

I despair at the thinking behind this. The failure is one of Government, who, despite enormously enhanced powers, are proving not capable of running an effective quarantine program. HQ was a stop gap, when there really was an emergency situation. More than a year later and we're still quarantining people in hotels that were never designed for the purpose. Solution; send police in to fine people for not using QR codes?!
The concept of quarantine has been around for hundreds, probably thousands of years but because it's hard to get a focus group response on how to do it, it's too hard for us!

 

[suze2000]

For about a week now, I have been wanting to report a restaurant for not displaying or enforcing checkins (and they are in the area of interest for this outbreak), and the link the DHHS supplied for reporting is broken!!!!!

 

[jakeseven7]

For about a week now, I have been wanting to report a restaurant for not displaying or enforcing checkins (and they are in the area of interest for this outbreak), and the link the DHHS supplied for reporting is broken!!!!!

Ive reported many businesses in Sydney, problem is you never hear back so I’m unsure of anything was ever done about them!

 

[SydneySwan]

I went to a car showroom on north shore of Sydney yesterday. They have the Queensland QR code for you to scan!

 

[openseat]

I went to the public library in Brisbane and was bemused that they were still using an older QR code despite what the Premier said about the Qld app. When I dared ask the librarian worker why the Qld app was not working, in true librarian snootery she said they were not bound by the Premier's declaration and besides, it was only for cafes.

 

[suze2000]

They are a public service, of course they are bound by what the Premier said!

 

[moa999]

I went to a car showroom on north shore of Sydney yesterday. They have the Queensland QR code for you to scan!

Which one?
Did you let them know?

 

[SydneySwan]

Which one?
Did you let them know?

Yes I did. Their explanation was that they were registered under their head office in Queensland.

 

[suze2000]

Yes I did. Their explanation was that they were registered under their head office in Queensland.

I'm sure the NSW Health Dept will find that particularly helpful.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Those results include 16 patrons from the Curry Vault restaurant in Melbourne's CBD, nine people who were at the Woolworths supermarket in Epping, five people who had been to the Indiagate Spices and Grocery store at Epping and 11 people from the Pact Altona North office and warehouse.

Six Victorians identified as staying on same level as COVID-19-infected Melbourne man

The South Australian government identifies six Victorians stayed on the same hotel level as a Wollert man infected with COVID-19 while undergoing quarantine in Adelaide.

www.abc.net.au

So far, so good.