All borders to reopen.
Nunc est bibendum
I was in WA in December in that short period that NSW people were allowed to roam free. It was amazing seeing the lack of social distancing going on at pubs around the city. Lots of of tracking people via the WA government app they require everyone to have so you’d think their contact tracing would be spot on but scratch below the surface and it was complacency central.
WA has had 8 months to put in place it’s processes to deal with what was always inevitable. It appears they’ve done SFA given the shortage of masks in all supermarkets.
Some comparisons with NSW and the most recent outbreak. NSW ‘locked down’ the northern beaches for a bunch of days due to a couple of super spreader events. Meanwhile the rest of the city masked up, checked in our app everywhere we went including gyms, cafes, restaurants, etc, socially distanced, and got on with life. Six weeks later we’ve had zero Covid for 14 days. Even when locked down my understanding the northern beaches residents could still exercise for as long as they liked, weren’t required to wear masks whilst doing so, and were allowed to do so with others. WA has said one hour for exercise, (why? What does it matter if someone exercises outdoors for three hours), with one other person, and locked people down who are literally hundreds of km away from the outbreak.
What. A. Joke. Talk about getting the government you deserve!
WA has had 8 months to put in place it’s processes to deal with what was always inevitable. It appears they’ve done SFA given the shortage of masks in all supermarkets.
Some comparisons with NSW and the most recent outbreak. NSW ‘locked down’ the northern beaches for a bunch of days due to a couple of super spreader events. Meanwhile the rest of the city masked up, checked in our app everywhere we went including gyms, cafes, restaurants, etc, socially distanced, and got on with life. Six weeks later we’ve had zero Covid for 14 days. Even when locked down my understanding the northern beaches residents could still exercise for as long as they liked, weren’t required to wear masks whilst doing so, and were allowed to do so with others. WA has said one hour for exercise, (why? What does it matter if someone exercises outdoors for three hours), with one other person, and locked people down who are literally hundreds of km away from the outbreak.
What. A. Joke. Talk about getting the government you deserve!
I am not so sure that he was smug prick, possibly steadfast in his attempt to keep the virus from spreading in a state with a small population that is distributed over a massive area (and with its tertiary hospitals in the metropolitan area), but I concur with the prick sentiment.
Nunc est bibendum
Now that WA has had community spread, I wonder if they’ll still insist on other jurisdictions such as NSW getting to 28 days before they open up to us?
Many people might have protection but unless community spread stops there is no chance of our international border being open without a guarantee that the people being allowed in either have a test with a negative result or go into quarantine at their own expense.
Nobody knows what it going to happen as 2021 progresses but 1 thing for sure is that the aus govt are not going to risk covid being brought here.
That is not saying we will not get cases(perth has 1 now) but as far as uncontrolled international borders go i think its very wise you having refundable hotel accomodation & from what i have been reading BA have suspended services to oz for many months.
Overseas residents may think the oz government are crazy imposing restrictions such as those in place now but i think you will find a majority of people here support what is in place & for those of us in victoria we are very aware of what a large outbreak does to our everyday freedom & on that point i have no issue with stating our govt run hotel quarantine caused it but it is us(the residents) who have buckled down to get where we are now & in all honesty overseas visitors are not high on our priority list.
We appreciate you wanting to come here & spend money however in 2021 that may not happen..
Nobody knows what it going to happen as 2021 progresses but 1 thing for sure is that the aus govt are not going to risk covid being brought here.
That is not saying we will not get cases(perth has 1 now) but as far as uncontrolled international borders go i think its very wise you having refundable hotel accomodation & from what i have been reading BA have suspended services to oz for many months.
Overseas residents may think the oz government are crazy imposing restrictions such as those in place now but i think you will find a majority of people here support what is in place & for those of us in victoria we are very aware of what a large outbreak does to our everyday freedom & on that point i have no issue with stating our govt run hotel quarantine caused it but it is us(the residents) who have buckled down to get where we are now & in all honesty overseas visitors are not high on our priority list.
We appreciate you wanting to come here & spend money however in 2021 that may not happen..
I think the Australian response has been laudable, but whilst it is fashionable to bring up the drawbridge to Johnny Foreigner with any sign of Covid, surely it is completely unsustainable in the long term. How is locking down a whole city for ONE case a sustainable and measured response, with the armory of testing, contact tracing and vaccines. I say that as a member of UK Labour. That said, looking on the echo chamber that is Twitter, it seems to have been lapped up.
It is so endemic in the global population, there is widespread medical agreement that it'll become a seasonal illness akin to the flu, needing top up vaccination.
Look at NZ - strictest of strict quarantine rules, someone does 14 days in the stalag and STILL gets sick. You can't keep it out forever I hate to say.
I'm no fan, but the deputy NSW premier was on the money when he said words to the effect of - McGowan better be careful because it might bite him on the bum! No daily testing for guards arranged for 20 days after national decision to do it. Well done.
South Australian cluster shows we need to stop hotel quarantine in cities: epidemiologist
Infectious diseases expert and epidemiologist Mary-Louise McLaws told Virginia Trioli the Adelaide cluster shows why hotel quarantine programs should be shut down in favour of purpose built quarantine stations.
"Hotel quarantines were a great idea to get Australians and residents back home, but it should only have been an interim idea," Professor McLaws said.
"We do need to start thinking about a purpose built environment."
"Hotel quarantines were a great idea to get Australians and residents back home, but it should only have been an interim idea," Professor McLaws said.
"We do need to start thinking about a purpose built environment."
In a situation like this, we should ask why we continue to operate high-risk quarantine hotels in the middle of a city. It would be much safer to quarantine people away from communities, like we did on Christmas Island earlier in the pandemic.
Join Date: Jun 2019
Location: Denmark
Posts: 0
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I bet we don’t see huge lines of ppl getting tested in Perth tomorrow. Do they even know how to set up testing clinic and able to turn a test around in less than 24hrs. Mr Barilaro will be having a little chuckle to himself now.
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: Australia
Posts: 19
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I agree there is a ridiculous amount of "she'll be right, it ain't here" by a large proportion of the community here. They are also the people who didn't buy masks when this thing hit, even as recent as when Brisbane locked down McGowan was still telling people to buy masks because we will need them if we get an outbreak. Why would shops stock them here if people aren't buying them? They aren't government run.
As recent as yesterday's press conference he was saying hotel quarantine should be a Federal run program at remote locations but Scomo doesn't want that so we have to deal with the situation as best we can. He comes across smug and a lot of people that I interact with have been saying it's only a matter of time until we get a case and he will get slaughtered by the east coast media for the way he is carrying on.
What's our alternative though? He was elected well before this mess, the opposition government has stood behind him on border closures since about May last year and their party is an absolute shambles?
WS - I guess you haven't repeatedly been abused by the WA public as you walk along the street in your mask to your crew transport or the COVID test?
To be fair it did happen in QLD a bit, but that was always at nighttime and they were pissed on XXXX at the bar over the road from the hotel. Not at lunchtime, nor repeatedly.
To be fair it did happen in QLD a bit, but that was always at nighttime and they were pissed on XXXX at the bar over the road from the hotel. Not at lunchtime, nor repeatedly.
Last edited by compressor stall; 31st Jan 2021 at 10:52.
Frustration as WA's COVID clinics struggle
Premier Mark McGowan says almost 2000 people presented at clinics on Thursday, about four times the usual daily number. source
Premier Mark McGowan says almost 2000 people presented at clinics on Thursday, about four times the usual daily number. source
And here's another one - from only a few minutes ago!
By about 4.30pm, the clinic on Beaufort Street had run out of COVID-19 testing swabs as people flooded in after Premier Mark McGowan announced there was community spread from a nearby Maylands resident.source
Why even 2000 people presented for testing is beyond me.
Different this afternoon - within hours of the announcements being made.
This is the right response. They have kept the virus out of the community for so long that their dream run doesn't require widespread testing like its counterparts. McGowan has also made the recommendation to close the borders to WA, in line with his own rules.
short flights long nights
It amazes me to see the joy people are
heaving at seeing an outbreak in WA. I thought you all wanted the borders to open, so that things can go back to “normal”,and you can go flying again.
We get an event in WA, that has the potential to shut borders hard again, and you could not be happier. It’s very strange.
( remember, the individual in question, could have spread it to someone that has already flown to the Eastern States and it is currently spreading in the east.. I hope that’s not the case.)
heaving at seeing an outbreak in WA. I thought you all wanted the borders to open, so that things can go back to “normal”,and you can go flying again.
We get an event in WA, that has the potential to shut borders hard again, and you could not be happier. It’s very strange.
( remember, the individual in question, could have spread it to someone that has already flown to the Eastern States and it is currently spreading in the east.. I hope that’s not the case.)
Nunc est bibendum
It’s one of the most idiotic proposals known to man kind. Introduces a whole bunch of risk transferring people with Covid from their point of arrival vast distances by bus, or air and then bus, to a remote location. Then you don’t have the critical mass of support workers required to run a proper quarantine system and need to ship people in. You also don’t have the same level of medical support available if someone gets seriously crook. And if it does get out into the community in that ‘remote location’ you then have to shut down that entire quarantine facility because the odds are you don’t have any surge capability of other staff to come in and take the place of those staff now in isolation.
