I felt this topic needed a bump, particularly for those subject to quaratine/iso in Victoria.
With good reason, NSW crew are celebrating the end of crew quarantine, however the situation in Victoria seems to be going from harsh to outright absurd.
Should there be no amendments to the easing of various restrictions announced this week, come November, an international returned traveler can arrive in Sydney, transit to Melbourne and walk around with complete freedom.
Meanwhile, a returned IFAM crew member who land in Melbourne will still be subject to 14 days quarantine/iso.
The state has also announced a reduction in isolation for confirmed PCC down to seven days from next Friday.
So now even confirmed close contacts of covid will spend less time locked up than returning freighter crews.
We are the only group of workers to not yet have a positive case (since April 2020) but no easing of restrictions has occurred in nearly 12 months.
Out of interest, the rolling monthly total (since 18th Sept inclusive) for cases in Victoria separated by place of origin, as of this morning was:
Overseas: 1
Community: 42,275
With a weekly cap of 500 arrivals and an estimate population in Melbourne of 5.1m, that's still shows an over 17 times greater chance of finding covid in the community than in a returned traveler.
The department is currently so busy dealing with the community outbreak that crew aren't getting any verbal or physical checkups anymore, merely a generic daily SMS.
Seems the wardens have abandoned the prison but taken the keys with them.
Hopefully there will be some changes announced shortly but I'm not holding my breath.