Australian Reports of the Virus Spread

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Presumably a mini bus was not considered necessary for a freighter crew of 3.

Well i was thinking more like the airport shuttle model they use for airport hotels in the US. One vehicle goes back and forth continually as needed, give it a quick clean between passengers. Those shuttles run with 1 or more passengers and allow for people to take luggage onboard so doesnt have to be handles by the driver, automatic doors etc.

I don't think anyone imagined limos were necessary for crew HQ.
 
NSW Health twitter post is late. They're never late, always a timed tweet at 1100.

Not a great sign.

Edit: Gladys on TV now. 1 local case.
 
Looks like fleeting contact is back according to the NSW CHO

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NSW Health records additional local COVID-19 case, masks mandatory for public transport in Greater Sydney as outbreak grows​



NSW has recorded one new locally acquired COVID-19 infection which authorities fear resulted from "very fleeting contact" with a previous case.


 
Looks like fleeting contact is back according to the NSW CHO

——

NSW Health records additional local COVID-19 case, masks mandatory for public transport in Greater Sydney as outbreak grows​



NSW has recorded one new locally acquired COVID-19 infection which authorities fear resulted from "very fleeting contact" with a previous case.


Did they eat pizza I wonder?
 
I don't think anyone imagined limos were necessary for crew HQ.

I wonder if it was a proper limo (with a physical barrier/screen between passengers and driver), if so it may make sense to use that for just 3 passengers. Or just a fancy/large car, with no separation between driver and passengers, which would not make so much sense.
 
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Please let it be a known contact already in isolation.....Carp, it isnt.

Not in iso but they do know the source already, identified very quickly via CCTV.

From SMH:

“It appears from CCTV cameras that it could have been a very fleeting contact between the infectious person and this gentleman,” Premier Gladys Berejiklian said of the Myer case, who shopped in the same section of the store as the driver on Saturday and will be included in tomorrow’s numbers.

NSW Health has contacted more than 1100 people who are getting tested and self-isolating in relation to local cases detected this week

 
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But they do know the source already, have the CC TV footage, its linked to Bondi.
Likely source - they were on the same floor in Myer, but CCTV does not yet show them "bump" in to each other. If they are not seen close together on the security footage, then that becomes a bigger issue.

“At the moment we don’t know the nature of the contact, the fact that the community would understand that, in general, when we are shopping in settings such as those sorts of retail environments we don’t generally come in close proximity.

“We just need to wait for the CCTV footage. You can’t recall everything that happens. There might be a close exposure.” Dr Chant.
 
Can I ask why it is necessary to fast track genomics on the 2 in the recent HQ case in Sydney?

Given genomic sequencing is attempted on all cases, I would instead ask the question why wait? Is there any benefit in waiting?
Now I fully understand that you might not want to fastrack in terms of performing it overnight etc if deemed not urgent, but why wait for over a week? What are the benefits from waiting?

Surely a normal period should just be days when there are only about 2 cases a day to sequence?

The only thing IMHO that could have been done differently is those released from the same floor could have been told to wear a mask until a negative test say 10-12 days after their release.But you didn't need genomic testing to do that.
.

1/ What the genomic test result does in this instance alert that there may have been a possible transmission within the HQ between residents (Clearly this is so as the recent action by taken NSW Health reflects that).

As to what happens when a possible HQ breach of the type where one resident infecting another resident is suspected (or known) at the time that the other residents are still in HQ, what has happened at other facilities has normally been:
1/ All other nearby residents are moved
2/ The quarantine period (or clock) for those residents is reset, as their protentional last exposure changes from on arrival till after arrival. In the past that has meant some people who had almost finished their quarantine had their total period almost doubled, and for others it may have just been days.

Now if the possible breach is not known till after people have left, then you get the set of actions that NSW Health is now doing. The same actions which for example were done in Victoria when further later testing was done on the Sr Lankan returnee to obtain a genomic match from a sample which previously did not produce a viable result.

2/ What the genomic test may also have done if it was not a match for the residents of the two abutting rooms, is that it allows you release the other residents with confidence on their scheduled departure days.


PS: For all I know all states may delay genomic testing of cases in HQ, but if they do my question remains, why wait?
 
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The quarantine period (or clock) for those residents is reset, as their protentional last exposure changes from on arrival till after arrival

Im not aware of this having ever been reported as happening in NSW. Seems like an assumption that what has happened in other states would happen in NSW, which shouldn't be assumed because Gladys' policy is never to impose more hardship than absolutely necessary.

Even today with the linked Delta cases masks are "recommended" not mandated indoors.


And again you dont know that they waited. We do know Dr Chant didnt announce any fast tracking as she usually does, but we dont know if there were issues with the sequencing necessitating more samples/reruns that delayed the results release.

The good news is that there are still no community cases related to this "possible" HQ transmission, and if no cases linked to this by tomorrow this is yet another non event.

Just accept that the key actions taken even without the genomics have stopped further spread (if indeed there was actually any HQ spread) and NSW health have subsequently managed the tiny risk of the others on the floor being infected via testing.
 
Im not aware of this having ever been reported as happening in NSW. Seems like an assumption that what has happened in other states would happen in NSW, which shouldn't be assumed because Gladys' policy is never to impose more hardship than absolutely necessary.

Even today with the linked Delta cases masks are "recommended" not mandated indoors.



And again you dont know that they waited. We do know Dr Chant didnt announce any fast tracking as she usually does, but we dont know if there were issues with the sequencing necessitating more samples/reruns that delayed the results release.

The good news is that there are still no community cases related to this "possible" HQ transmission, and if no cases linked to this by tomorrow this is yet another non event.

Just accept that the key actions taken even without the genomics have stopped further spread (if indeed there was actually any HQ spread) and NSW health have subsequently managed the tiny risk of the others on the floor being infected via testing.

I think we need another thread for "Australian Speculations on the Virus Spread" so we can split the facts from the assumptions!
 
Sorry you still have not convinced me that the genomic testing needs to be done quickly.The NSW authorities presumed there was HQ spread immediately.
In 3 States the proceedure is to move positive cases to medi hotels -SA,QLD and NSW.Also the stated policy in Tasmania though they haven't needed to do so for a long time.
You have also forgotten that sometimes when the genomic testing couldn't give a result on the first testing they can go back and retest using more amplification and sometimes then be able to get a result.Here is the description of genomic testing methodology in a lancet article on a fellow who in the USA had a different genomic infection 6 weeks after his first infection.
For viral genomic sequencing, total RNA was extracted from nasopharyngeal swabs as described. 70 μL of extracted RNA was treated for 30 min at room temperature with Qiagen DNase I (Qiagen, Germantown, MD, USA) and then cleaned and concentrated with silica spin columns (Qiagen RNeasy MinElute; Qiagen) with a 12 μL water elution. A portion (7 μL) of this RNA was annealed to an rRNA inhibitor (Qiagen FastSelect rRNA HMR; Qiagen) and then reverse-transcribed (cDNA) using random hexamers. The synthesised DNA was strand-ligated and isothermally amplified into micrograms of DNA (Qiagen FX Single Cell RNA Library Kit; Qiagen). A portion (1 μg) of this amplified DNA was sheared and ligated to Illumina-compatible sequencing adapters, followed by six cycles of PCR amplification (KAPA HiFi HotStart Library Amplification Kit; Roche Sequencing and Life Science, Kapa Biosystems, Wilmington, MA, USA) to enrich for library molecules with adapters at both ends. Next, these sequencing libraries were enriched for a sequence specific to SARS-CoV-2 using biotinylated oligonucleotide baits (myBaits Expert Virus, Arbor Biosciences, Ann Arbor, MI, USA). A further eight to 16 cycles of PCR were done after enrichment (98°C for 45 s, 98°C for 15 s, 60°C for 30 s, repeat for eight to 16 cycles, then 72°C for 60 s and 4°C to complete), and these SARS-CoV-2-enriched sequencing libraries were pooled and sequenced with an Illumina NextSeq 500 (Illumina, San Diego, CA USA) as paired-end 2 × 75 base pair reads using the NextSeq version 2.5 mid-output 150 cycle kit (Illumina).


So sorry I feel the major benefit of genomic testing is proving the links betwen positive cases and much more important in community cases than HQ.I really doubt the genomic testing would have been of practical value.Remember Wollert man.The next case was picked up some time after he was diagnosed.
 
Likely source - they were on the same floor in Myer, but CCTV does not yet show them "bump" in to each other. If they are not seen close together on the security footage, then that becomes a bigger issue.

“At the moment we don’t know the nature of the contact, the fact that the community would understand that, in general, when we are shopping in settings such as those sorts of retail environments we don’t generally come in close proximity.

“We just need to wait for the CCTV footage. You can’t recall everything that happens. There might be a close exposure.” Dr Chant.

Yes maybe the first person dropped something, the second person picked it up and returned it and breathed into their face... you never know!
 
I feel the major benefit of genomic testing is proving the links between positive cases and much more important in community cases than HQ.

I would not disagree with that at all.

However the question I am asking is given that they attempt to sequence all cases (ie positive results) anyway, why the delay in the testing of all results at times like this when there were such few cases to sequence, and no higher priority cases?

Now there may well be a very logical reason and benefit as to why they do delay HQ genomic sequencing. If so, I was curious as to what this may be?

Again this question would apply to all jurisdictions.

Looks like no one knows the answer and so I will just have to continue to wonder.
 
Was there a delay or was there the need for further processing to get the result.Neither of us know.It is not necessarily a NSW Health misstep.
My guess it was the need for reprocessing.
 
And he travelled to Canberra to the Van Gogh exhibition - ACT Health having a minor panic attack :)

Oh no! I was there with my wife and my kids!!!! ..... On Saturday night. Phew.

The exhibition is full house over the long weekend and we were there until 8pm (extended hours for the exhibition, we started at 6:30pm). Lots of people there, and definitely no social distancing rules followed as they are all standing looking at paintings. Tons of selfies with the Van Gogh sunflower painting. I prefer other paintings though.
 
So sick of hearing this kind of thing from smug Sydneysiders. You have no appreciation of what Melburnians went through last year.

Your comments made me remember about "Kick a Vic" slogan. There has been a lot of interstate rivalries in the past, and the coronavirus has bring it to new levels:


I learnt about "Kick a Vic" when I was living in SA, in the era of State of Origin footy between VIC and SA, and how Vics stole the Grand Prix from SA etc .... I have never heard about this term in Sydney though.
 
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