Coronavirus | PUNT ROAD END | Richmond Tigers Forum
  • IMPORTANT // Please look after your loved ones, yourself and be kind to others. If you are feeling that the world is too hard to handle there is always help - I implore you not to hesitate in contacting one of these wonderful organisations Lifeline and Beyond Blue ... and I'm sure reaching out to our PRE community we will find a way to help. T.

Coronavirus

Althom

Tiger Superstar
Jul 23, 2016
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It is a difficult one. International students provide a lot to our economy and the government seems hell bent on screwing universities, but the risk really is too high at the moment the way the virus is going crazy overseas. Not sure China can keep it out either given they have land borders.

Australians should just be able to return. Maybe a few can hitch a ride in Mathias' plane.

The other aspect is we still have freight coming here from overseas on boats, their crews are likely to be left on the ships but someone has to get the stuff off the ship, there will be some contact. In Melbourne all ships need a pilot from our port authority to go through the heads.

No contact with the rest of the world is not realistic.

So, we need to get the quarantine working better. I still think this means quarantine camps of some sort away from the city centre. Some sort of army camp, convention centre, disused university campus or the like could work and could be found near enough to the city to enable those who do get sick to be taken to hospital. Quarantine in the middle of the city seems a contradiction in terms.

DS
The ship issue can be a problem as indicated by the problems we've had in WA but they are certainly not insurmountable.
 

Althom

Tiger Superstar
Jul 23, 2016
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My personal view is we should bring any Australian citizen home who wants to come and use quarantine measures as needed.

Not sure now is the time to extend that opportunity to others however, the world is drowning and we are in one of very few lifeboats.
Interesting article in the paper this morning.
"In one case, it took 1800 calls and emails from Australian officials to fill 175 seats on a specially organised flight, according to the Courier Mail. The committee heard not enough notice, work obligations and health were some of the reasons Australians have had to turn down the offer."
Can understand if you're too crook to travel but if you're allegedly desperate to get back then ........
 
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Ridley

Tiger Legend
Jul 21, 2003
17,755
15,433
I wonder if the cost was a factor as well.

I was overseas when things kicked off in March and had a flight scheduled to come home a few days after they put the word out.

I looked at changing to an earlier flight and found the cost had increased by just under 10 times the cost of the original flight I had booked. I could understand people having trouble managing that.
Not sure that's the case with the Qantas flights now been arranged out of Germany and France. I heard on ABC radio this morning that they will cost about $2K which is not unreasonable in the circumstances. But the travellers need to get themselves to the airport in Germany or France which may pose problems for some.
 
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Althom

Tiger Superstar
Jul 23, 2016
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I wonder if the cost was a factor as well.

I was overseas when things kicked off in March and had a flight scheduled to come home a few days after they put the word out.

I looked at changing to an earlier flight and found the cost had increased by just under 10 times the cost of the original flight I had booked. I could understand people having trouble managing that.
This was one of the special repat flights that goes at about $2k.
 
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waiting

Tiger Legend
Apr 15, 2007
14,058
9,171
Victoria
I wonder if the cost was a factor as well.

I was overseas when things kicked off in March and had a flight scheduled to come home a few days after they put the word out.

I looked at changing to an earlier flight and found the cost had increased by just under 10 times the cost of the original flight I had booked. I could understand people having trouble managing that.
Yes I’m sure that there are cases where the cost is so high.
 

Althom

Tiger Superstar
Jul 23, 2016
1,175
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Not sure that's the case with the Qantas flights now been arranged out of Germany and France. I heard on ABC radio this morning that they will cost about $2K which is not unreasonable in the circumstances. But the travellers need to get themselves to the airport in Germany or France which may pose problems for some.
Just looking at the rules for travel into France.
Member States of the European Union, Andorra, Australia, the Holy See, Iceland, Japan, Liechtenstein, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, Rwanda, San Marino, South Korea, Singapore, Switzerland, Thailand and the United Kingdom can enter metropolitan France without any COVID-19 restrictions!!!

Looks like there's virtually no restrictions on travel between EU countries although I'd guess there's limited flights/trains etc.

No borders within the EU not looking like such a good idea any more.
 
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Brodders17

Tiger Legend
Mar 21, 2008
17,661
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I heard today the one international leader, in a country terribly affected by Covid, was encouraging big gatherings to happen during a significant national holiday. I didn't catch all the details, but surely no one would be so stupid, and surely if the leader was that stupid, no voters would be dumb enough to vote for such a person.
 
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22nd Man

Tiger Legend
Aug 29, 2011
9,185
3,597
Essex Heights
I heard today the one international leader, in a country terribly affected by Covid, was encouraging big gatherings to happen during a significant national holiday. I didn't catch all the details, but surely no one would be so stupid, and surely if the leader was that stupid, no voters would be dumb enough to vote for such a person.
So eveyone travelling in the US for Thanksgiving voted for Trump? Didn't realise the yanks were that divided. But collectively they are so far behind I don't know if it will matter what they Do or don't do this weekend.
 
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LeeToRainesToRoach

Tiger Legend
Jun 4, 2006
33,186
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Melbourne
Infected man in SA breaches quarantine (paywalled)

An infected man has breached quarantine in Adelaide, leading to ever more urgent calls for residents to get tested.

The man in his 30s visited the Intensive English Language Institute at Flinders University Sturt Campus, with South Australia’s chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier saying it was “critical” people responded to the cluster update.

Professor Spurrier told reporters on Sunday afternoon the breach had created a “significant risk” to the state’s containment of the deadly virus and desperately wanted the new message spread far and wide.

Anyone who attended the campus and three retail venues across the city at a specific time period is being urged to seek a test and immediately quarantine.

These sites include:

Flinders University Sturt Campus Nov 13 – Nov 28
Big W Brickworks 22 Nov 12:15-12:50pm
Foodland Norwood 22 Nov 1:20-2:00pm
Kmart Kurralta Park 22 Nov 2:45-3:10pm

“When I spoke yesterday, my initial understanding was that the case was in quarantine and certainly they were considered a casual contact at the Intensive English Language Institute,” Prof Spurrier said on Sunday.

“Unfortunately, they did not spend the whole time in quarantine and at one point were out and about on a day and I need to let people know of some places of concern.

“We want you to get tested immediately even if you have no symptoms.”
 
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LeeToRainesToRoach

Tiger Legend
Jun 4, 2006
33,186
11,546
Melbourne

Signs Sweden has lost faith with COVID expert Anders Tegnell as deaths rise

Richard Orange
The Age
November 29, 2020

The high-profile epidemiologist who led Sweden's no-lockdown strategy in the spring appears to be being sidelined by the government after his prediction that greater immunity would mean a lighter second wave proved badly wrong.

Anders Tegnell's biweekly press conference was on Thursday pushed into the shade by an overlapping press conference fronted by Stefan Lofven, Sweden's Prime Minister, where scenarios prepared by the Public Health Agency were announced.

"There's certainly a split, and I'm pretty sure that many in the government have rather lost faith in the Public Health Agency," said Nicholas Aylott, an associate politics professor at Stockholm's Södertörn University.

"By some counts, we've now got exactly the same level of spread of the virus that we had in the spring, and that's about as clear a refutation of Tegnell's strategy as you could wish for."

Dr Tegnell had always insisted that his Public Health Agency had never pursued a herd immunity strategy, but he repeatedly suggested in the summer that his counterparts in Norway, Finland and Denmark would face a tougher task over the winter because of lower levels of immunity in their populations.

This month, though, the number of deaths in Sweden had again begun to soar above that of its Nordic neighbours, with 630 deaths registered as a result of COVID-19. That was about 10 times the per capita death rate as Norway where just 30 COVID-19 deaths were registered between Oct 28 and November 25.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control expects Sweden to next month surpass the peak death rates it suffered in April, with between 100 and 140 people projected to die of the virus each day.

Ewa Stenberg, a political commentator for the Dagens Nyheter newspaper, said the agency's failure to predict the severity of the second wave had damaged its standing.

"There is criticism against the Public Health Agency in the government because of that, and because of their lack of stringency in their advice to people," she said.

Shaken by the worsening situation, Sweden's government has started to itself take the initiative, imposing a ban on alcohol sales after 10pm and reducing the maximum allowed public gathering to eight people, a measure Lofven described as having "no equivalent in modern times".

"In the spring, there was a proposal first from the Public Health Agency, but in these latest decisions, the government has made a proposal, and then they have asked for the Public Health Agency to respond," Stenberg said.

Both Tegnell and Lofven have denied that there has been a breakdown in trust. "All rumours about a rift between the government and the agency are completely false. We have a continuous very strong dialogue and a strong level of trust between us," Tegnell said on Thursday.

His comments were echoed by Lofven in an interview with Sweden's Expressen newspaper. "There is no rift whatsoever. I imagine there sometimes might be a temptation in the media to portray conflicts. But here there is none," he said.

Sweden's newspapers, however, have been reporting the growing friction.

"The split grows: how Tegnell lost his veto," read the headline of the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper's Sunday feature.

An article in Expressen depicted growing pessimism within the government, with one anonymous civil servant telling a journalist they feared the pandemic would grind on for years, creating a "new normal".
 
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Althom

Tiger Superstar
Jul 23, 2016
1,175
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Infected man in SA breaches quarantine (paywalled)

An infected man has breached quarantine in Adelaide, leading to ever more urgent calls for residents to get tested.

The man in his 30s visited the Intensive English Language Institute at Flinders University Sturt Campus, with South Australia’s chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier saying it was “critical” people responded to the cluster update.

Professor Spurrier told reporters on Sunday afternoon the breach had created a “significant risk” to the state’s containment of the deadly virus and desperately wanted the new message spread far and wide.

Anyone who attended the campus and three retail venues across the city at a specific time period is being urged to seek a test and immediately quarantine.

These sites include:

Flinders University Sturt Campus Nov 13 – Nov 28
Big W Brickworks 22 Nov 12:15-12:50pm
Foodland Norwood 22 Nov 1:20-2:00pm
Kmart Kurralta Park 22 Nov 2:45-3:10pm

“When I spoke yesterday, my initial understanding was that the case was in quarantine and certainly they were considered a casual contact at the Intensive English Language Institute,” Prof Spurrier said on Sunday.

“Unfortunately, they did not spend the whole time in quarantine and at one point were out and about on a day and I need to let people know of some places of concern.

“We want you to get tested immediately even if you have no symptoms.”
Police claim man charged with quarantine breach told customers at Perth pub he should be in isolation (watoday.com.au)
Muppets, muppets everywhere.
 
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AngryAnt

Tiger Legend
Nov 25, 2004
27,017
14,792

Signs Sweden has lost faith with COVID expert Anders Tegnell as deaths rise

Richard Orange
The Age
November 29, 2020

The high-profile epidemiologist who led Sweden's no-lockdown strategy in the spring appears to be being sidelined by the government after his prediction that greater immunity would mean a lighter second wave proved badly wrong.

Anders Tegnell's biweekly press conference was on Thursday pushed into the shade by an overlapping press conference fronted by Stefan Lofven, Sweden's Prime Minister, where scenarios prepared by the Public Health Agency were announced.

"There's certainly a split, and I'm pretty sure that many in the government have rather lost faith in the Public Health Agency," said Nicholas Aylott, an associate politics professor at Stockholm's Södertörn University.

"By some counts, we've now got exactly the same level of spread of the virus that we had in the spring, and that's about as clear a refutation of Tegnell's strategy as you could wish for."

Dr Tegnell had always insisted that his Public Health Agency had never pursued a herd immunity strategy, but he repeatedly suggested in the summer that his counterparts in Norway, Finland and Denmark would face a tougher task over the winter because of lower levels of immunity in their populations.

This month, though, the number of deaths in Sweden had again begun to soar above that of its Nordic neighbours, with 630 deaths registered as a result of COVID-19. That was about 10 times the per capita death rate as Norway where just 30 COVID-19 deaths were registered between Oct 28 and November 25.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control expects Sweden to next month surpass the peak death rates it suffered in April, with between 100 and 140 people projected to die of the virus each day.

Ewa Stenberg, a political commentator for the Dagens Nyheter newspaper, said the agency's failure to predict the severity of the second wave had damaged its standing.

"There is criticism against the Public Health Agency in the government because of that, and because of their lack of stringency in their advice to people," she said.

Shaken by the worsening situation, Sweden's government has started to itself take the initiative, imposing a ban on alcohol sales after 10pm and reducing the maximum allowed public gathering to eight people, a measure Lofven described as having "no equivalent in modern times".

"In the spring, there was a proposal first from the Public Health Agency, but in these latest decisions, the government has made a proposal, and then they have asked for the Public Health Agency to respond," Stenberg said.

Both Tegnell and Lofven have denied that there has been a breakdown in trust. "All rumours about a rift between the government and the agency are completely false. We have a continuous very strong dialogue and a strong level of trust between us," Tegnell said on Thursday.

His comments were echoed by Lofven in an interview with Sweden's Expressen newspaper. "There is no rift whatsoever. I imagine there sometimes might be a temptation in the media to portray conflicts. But here there is none," he said.

Sweden's newspapers, however, have been reporting the growing friction.

"The split grows: how Tegnell lost his veto," read the headline of the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper's Sunday feature.

An article in Expressen depicted growing pessimism within the government, with one anonymous civil servant telling a journalist they feared the pandemic would grind on for years, creating a "new normal".

Yes, seems like the Sweden experiment is coming to an end. Still, their rates are worse than other Nordic countries but still not the worst in Europe.

We really need these effective vaccines rolled out ASAP
 
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DavidSSS

Tiger Legend
Dec 11, 2017
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Melbourne
I would think the vaccines are still a while off, the reported results are pretty early results and who knows how long any immunity lasts for.

Just have to keep vigilant on this, likely until well after vaccines are available.

DS
 
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MD Jazz

Don't understand football? Talk to the hand.
Feb 3, 2017
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DavidSSS

Tiger Legend
Dec 11, 2017
10,523
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Melbourne
Kennett can take plenty of blame, along with all the governments in Victoria over the last 25 years who have created the DHHS which really does not look well organised.

If anything comes out of this they need to sort out how Health is run in this state.

DS
 
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