Australian Reports of the Virus Spread

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Lots of fleeting transmission references from our intelligent QLD CHO though so it’s very worrisome ;) Tassie will probably lock us out.... I might have to pull a flight forward.
Tassie only locks you out from exposure sites so won't ban all of Brisbane unless the intelligent CHO tells Anastacia to lock down all of Brisbane.
 
From a bit of a online review, Health official and scientists around the world along with the health officials in Australia are now in the main indicating that the Delta Variant is more transmissible, and that people can become infected from briefer exposures.

But why is it so? Well no-one exactly knows as yet.

However there are various hypotheses mainly based on some initial work done by a number of different teams on how this variant acts once it invades a host, including a number of possible mechanisms at play but they in the main are that this variant has the ability to infect more easily, including that it replicates more readily once in a host. Basically it is more efficient at infecting. So this can mean that smaller viral loads can infect a host. So a transmission setting that may not have resulted in a case in the past, can now do so. A host who may have been less susceptible to the virus, may also be more susceptible to this variant.

As such, whether transmission is aerosol, droplet or fomite is may not matter to it spreading more easily, it is essentially that this variant needs less of a viral load to cause an infection in a host and that makes all three transmission paths more likely to infect.

So that little dose of viral load that may not have breached the body's defenses previously may now do so.

Being more efficient is also why it out competes other strains to become the dominant strain (or at least in communities where the virus in in wide circulation, which in Australia is not the case but in many countries like India and UK it is the case).


"When these viruses mutate, they do so with some advantage to the virus. In this case, it is more transmissible,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky
The delta variant has multiple mutations. Scientists don't know the exact function of these mutations at this point in time but they are associated with allowing the virus to bind to the cells of humans and helping the virus to escape some immune responses, said Deepti Gurdasani, a clinical epidemiologist at Queen Mary University of London.
Prof. Wendy Barclay, professor of virology and head of the Department of Infectious Disease at Imperial College London in the U.K., explained that this variant is more transmissible than previous ones because of some key mutations in the spike protein, which allows the virus to penetrate and infect healthy cells.

“The delta variant has got two important mutations in its spike protein, or sets of mutations,” she noted. “One is at the furin cleavage site, which we think is quite important for the fitness of the virus in the airway.”

“The virus that emerged in Wuhan was suboptimal in that respect, so it transmitted but perhaps not as well as it might. The alpha variant took one step towards improving that with a certain mutation, and the delta variant has built on that and taken a second step now, a bigger step, towards improving that feature,” said Prof. Barclay.
Part of scientists’ concern with the Delta variant is that a more transmissible virus can make social distancing less successful.
 
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The two possible cases in Vic that were flagged earlier today from the surveillance testing of returned travellers, and were indicated to likely have been historic infections, rather than new infections, have now been confirmed as historic infections..


Extract from Vic DHHS media Update 20th June

Update: Outbreaks​

Two cases under investigation this morning were returned travellers who had completed Hotel Quarantine.
Test and serology results were suggestive of historic infections – which was subsequently confirmed by an expert review panel convened today.​
 
Why is JY so sure the Emirates flight attendant caught Covid on the flight ? Did the FA get tested on day 14 due to synptoms or was a test taken as part of HQ release?
 
It is a bit strange as initially it was said the positive case on the plane was the Delta variant but now it has been said the FA hasn't got the delta variant.

I am sure I read in one of the initial reports that she was tested on the 5th and 12th day of quarantine and they were negative but the day 14 test was positive.Now a day 14 test is not the usual QLD practice so did she have symptoms.If so why wasn't she isolating until the result was back?

How often do I need to be tested?
You will be tested for COVID-19 on:

  • arrival at your government arranged accommodation; and
  • on day 5; and
  • on day 12 or 13 of your quarantine, even if you have no symptoms.
 
Tassie only locks you out from exposure sites so won't ban all of Brisbane unless the intelligent CHO tells Anastacia to lock down all of Brisbane.
Tassie locked out all of Victoria, including regional areas far removed from exposure sites.
 
Tassie locked out all of Victoria, including regional areas far removed from exposure sites.
But only after the Victorian government had locked down the whole of Victoria.That is why I added the proviso that if Anastacia locks down Brisbane then Tassie will lock out Brisbane.
 
It is a bit strange as initially it was said the positive case on the plane was the Delta variant but now it has been said the FA hasn't got the delta variant.

I am sure I read in one of the initial reports that she was tested on the 5th and 12th day of quarantine and they were negative but the day 14 test was positive.Now a day 14 test is not the usual QLD practice so did she have symptoms.If so why wasn't she isolating until the result was back?



The testing timeline:

Dr Young said the case tested negative day zero, day five and day 12 of hotel quarantine. She then developed symptoms but believed they were her normal sinusitis.
“She did not pay attention to them,” Dr Young said.
“And then she left hotel quarantine on day 14 and then had a routine test because I require all cabin crew to be tested routinely every seven days. So this was just a routine test that happened to fall on day 14. And she tested positive.”
So was symptomatic, but not tested :oops:

So that routine test could have been up to 6 days later......:oops:

While her variant was not confirmed, other than it not being Delta (ie as per the person on the flight,) perhaps Qld Health may also have the sequences of all positive tests in HQ and in which case could rule them out as a likely source?

The FA may also not be a close match with any other Australian case. But Qld Health has not released any details on the exact sequence, or how it compares to known sequences in Australia.
 
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So it looks like Jeannette has a problem with maths.Tested at day 14 because aircrew have to be tested every 7 days but didn't have a routine aircrew test at Day 7.Also there were 7 days between day 5 and 12 when she had tests.
Only in QLD.
 
Tassie locked out all of Victoria, including regional areas far removed from exposure sites.
But only after the Victorian government had locked down the whole of Victoria.That is why I added the proviso that if Anastacia locks down Brisbane then Tassie will lock out Brisbane.
Meanwhile the NT acting CHO counterintuitively declared regional Victoria a hotspot 12 hours before Vic relaxed their own regional restrictions earlier this month...go figure. But we digress
 
CHO: Qld case from yesterday was infected in the quarantine hotel (Alpha strain). Apparently not EK cabin crew, but cabin crew for another airline...bit confusing.
 
Apparently not EK cabin crew, but cabin crew for another airline...bit confusing.

Yeah that didn’t quite make sense when it was reported. Why would EK crew be in 14 day passenger hotel quarantine? Sounds like it was just a generic passenger who happened to have been a flight attendant (or aspiring to be one). Typical hard hitting Australian journalism.
 
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Woah. Massive outbreak 🙄

Not really.... I think they are taking appropriate steps to try and limit the spread but as the NSW CHO keeps on saying the index case appears to have been transmitting it in very fleeting interactions which is irritating 🤪
 
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