Coronavirus 4 - Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

[David]

Well, that seems promising! Still not holding out much hope that we'll be out of the woods by Thursday here, but I guess we'll see what transpires.

[eddiesmith]

Dan making a sensible decision? Only 4 days too late, a record for him. Must have got some pressure from his Mum...

[Dave The Man]

So what does this mean, policy-wise? Is the hope of no more lockdowns once mass vaccination has been achieved a pipedream?

Depends what the Triggers are but I am not 100% That Lockdowns will Completely Stop

[stui magpie]

Finally some sense opening up regional Victoria. The white collar workers who can work from home and either have rural holiday houses or friends/family they can stay with have already fled and haven't taken it to the bush. The blue collar and essential workers and those who can't work due to lock down won't be going anywhere.

[Pies4shaw]

Yesterday evening, a further 7-day lockdown started in NSW:

The Byron Shire, Richmond Valley, Lismore and Ballina Shire LGAs are locked down until 12:01am on August 17.

The lockdown affects anyone who has been in these areas on or after July 31.

The same rules apply to the current restrictions in Greater Sydney, Hunter region and parts of the New England region.

The lockdown comes after a man in his 50s tested positive to COVID-19 after arriving in the Byron Shire from Sydney.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-09/ ... /100362954

It appears the fellow concerned has been in Byron - not using QR codes - for 10 days and is now being uncooperative. I don't like the NSW Government's narrative of personal responsibility - the virus spreads because there are always idiots, despite the vast majority of people doing what is asked of them (however galling, irritating and inconvenient and however much we grumble) and turning the police loose on people after the event probably leads to less useful public health outcomes - but ratbaggery like this does test one's patience.

[Pies4shaw]

COVID has been affecting the US population for long enough, now, that the IHME has been able to estimate the true number of deaths attributable to COVID there, as distinct from the ones that are merely reported. Their conclusion is that, as at 29 July 2021, deaths in the US due to COVID were more than 50% higher than reported. Put simply, the IHME estimates that the actual number of COVID deaths then was over 940,000, rather than the 608,000 reported at that time.

A description of their method is here: http://www.healthdata.org/special-analy ... -19-deaths

[Pies4shaw]

^ It might also be useful to mention that the IHME has done that analysis country by country. In Australia's case, they have concluded, in short, that the reported deaths and the estimated actual deaths are the same - that is, they don't consider there to be any under-reporting in Australia.

Meanwhile, in Victoria, the Government has reported 20 new local cases and no new cases acquired overseas.
- 34,892 test results were received

The Government says that "The 20 new locally-acquired cases are all linked, and five have been in quarantine throughout their infectious period".

[stui magpie]

Yesterday evening, a further 7-day lockdown started in NSW:

The Byron Shire, Richmond Valley, Lismore and Ballina Shire LGAs are locked down until 12:01am on August 17.

The lockdown affects anyone who has been in these areas on or after July 31.

The same rules apply to the current restrictions in Greater Sydney, Hunter region and parts of the New England region.

The lockdown comes after a man in his 50s tested positive to COVID-19 after arriving in the Byron Shire from Sydney.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-09/ ... /100362954

It appears the fellow concerned has been in Byron - not using QR codes - for 10 days and is now being uncooperative. I don't like the NSW Government's narrative of personal responsibility - the virus spreads because there are always idiots, despite the vast majority of people doing what is asked of them (however galling, irritating and inconvenient and however much we grumble) and turning the police loose on people after the event probably leads to less useful public health outcomes - but ratbaggery like this does test one's patience.

I don't think NSW Government narrative of personal responsibility is to blame here. This clown knew what he was supposed to do and ignored it. It would be no different from someone from Melbournes Western Suburbs going to Daylesford next weekend and ignoring QR code check ins.

QR code compliance is variable it seems. I was chatting to the owner of a gift shop in Cullen Bay yesterday morning. She has a second shop at Darwin Waterfront and said they have all sorts of problems there with people not checking in. (my personal observation was different, but this is her story). She reported that the older people, the grey nomads etc, were fine, it was the younger ones.

As we were speaking, 2 women probably late 30's early 40's came in ignoring the check in at the entrance. The owner pulled them up and asked them to check in, they looked at the QR code as if it was some form of abstract art piece and after some dithering scribbled down (I assume fake) names and numbers on the manual option.

There's always going to be mouth breathers, far-quits and epsilon minuses. We shouldn't all need to be treated like them.

[Pies4shaw]

I don't think the narrative of personal responsibility is to "blame" for ratbag behaviour but if you talk - as they have done, repeatedly - about getting the police involved to determine whether or not there have been breaches, it is unlikely to enhance co-operation with contact tracers by other idiots, going forward. I understand that we get angry about - and want to punish - selfish, harmful idiocy but the first priority should always be to do whatever is necessary to get the best information possible to assist with public health response.

Meanwhile, the Qld Premier is quoted on the ABC blog as reporting:

We have some really good news today. We only have three new cases and they are all linked to the Indooroopilly cluster. They haven't been in the community infectious and are all in quarantine ... it is wonderful, wonderful news.

[Dave The Man]

So Metro Melbourne be in Lockdown for at least another Week and a Half

[Pies4shaw]

[stui magpie]

A mate of mine lives in the Ballina shire, this is the first time since the stay home order in April 2020 that they've had any restrictions.

I messaged him to see how he was, he's fine. Still has to go to work each day, just annoyed that the kids are home from school and said the locals are amazed that it took this long for a drama to come out of Byron.

[KenH]

I have no idea as I haven't tried to do this before, there were times last year when it was suggested to me to try and see if we could get support but we were happy to make do as we reckon we could get through.
We have decided to pass this onto our accountant to check it out for us.
I have never tried to get handouts before as I prefer to leave it to people who really need it.

Update, so I have contacted our accountant and they had already started putting a claim in place for us, quite easy just had to supply a little info and should be getting just over $4000 into our account.

That should be very helpful to us and we have some work lined up for tomorrow and fingers crossed all next week.
Thanks to all, for your concern, I appreciate it!

[stui magpie]

^

Goodonya mate, stay well.

Hope you enjoyed the lamb roast and sponge cake.

[KenH]

^

Goodonya mate, stay well.

Hope you enjoyed the lamb roast and sponge cake.

Yep enjoyed that as well as some beers + bourbons but not the footy!