COVID-19 / Australia / 27th November Update

As of today, big fat zeros across the entire country as far as community transmissions are concerned.

Apart from a quarantined cluster in South Australia, the country is virtually Covid free.

Unless something drastic happens, there may be no need for any more Covid updates.

Well done us!

All other states and territories have been Covid free for months.

COVID-19 / Australia / 19th & 20th November Updates

Just when you think it’s safe to go back in the water, the state of South Australia, after 3 months of no community Covid transmission, has seen the virus ‘escape’ from a quarantine hotel via a cleaner who had had no contact with the ‘guests’.
They assume she must have got it off a contaminated surface somewhere. The virus strain was traced to a ‘guest’ who had arrived from overseas on November 2nd and went directly to quarantine.
So far, 22 cases have been detected.
Their government has enacted an immediate “circuit breaker” which includes a six-day lock down and a further eight days of lesser restrictions in the state.
The rules are listed below. Compare these to what is in place in other countries around the world. Victoria took similar action but not as quickly and for much longer. So far that state has had nearly three weeks of zero transmissions.
Lock downs, while tough for the population and business, work!

All South Australians will have to stay put in their house for six days. Wherever they were at midnight this Wednesday (yesterday) that’s where they have to remain.
All schools will be shut except for children of essential workers and vulnerable children;
Childcare will be open only to essential workers, and shut to everyone else;
People will not be permitted to leave their home to exercise.
Takeaway food will be shut;
Universities will be closed;
Pubs, cafe’s, food courts and other food venues will be closed;
Elective surgery will be closed, except for urgent operations;
Cancer treatment will be closed;
Real estate inspections will be closed;
All outdoor sport and physical activity will not be permitted.
Regional travel is not approved. Holiday houses are closed. Schoolies, which police commissioner Grant Stevens said yesterday was still on, is now off;
Aged care and residential disability care is in lock down;
Factories other than for food and medical products are closed, apart from essential maintenance;
The construction industry is closed;
Weddings and funerals will be banned for six days;
Face masks are required when outside the home, although it’s just encouraged not mandatory as many in SA do not yet have masks;
Families with joint custody arrangements have been asked to find an arrangement that works for the next six days, without moving between houses.

Remaining open:
Supermarkets will remain open for one visit from one person per household per day;
Critical infrastructure — power, telecommunications — will remain open;
Medical services including mental health services will remain open;
Public transport will remain open;

Airport and freight services will remain open;
Petrol stations will remain open;
Banks and financial institutions will remain open;
Post offices will remain open;
Mining, smelting, and large factories will be allowed to continue to operate at a level required to ensure continuity of service delivery or to prevent damage, but not for anything else;
Veterinary surgeons will remain open;
Agriculture workers will be able to move around to ensure the safety, welfare and processing of animals and animal products, like dairy.

Update: No new SA cases reported today, Thursday. In fact there were zero new cases Australia wide.

Update: 20th November: Apparently the decision to lock down was based on information given to contact tracers by an infected person. It has now been established that this contact had lied and the situation, while still serious, was not critical.

So the SA government has revised their strategy and restrictions have been substantially reduced.

As of 12pm today, Friday 20 November 2020 exercise outside of your home with members of your household is permitted.
Masks are not mandatory but are encouraged.
Schools will re-open on Monday 23 November 2020.
As of 12:01 am on Sunday 22 November (Midnight Saturday) we will revert to similar restrictions that were in place on Monday 16 November 2020.
This includes:
1 person per 4 square meters will apply.
All food and beverages will need to be consumed while seated.
No dancing
Updated gathering provision numbers being:
Onsite purchase and consumption of food and beverages- 100 people maximum and no more than 10 people at each table.
Funerals- 50 people maximum
Weddings- 150 people maximum and registration of all guests with SA Health
Religious ceremonies (not including a wedding or funeral)- 100 people maximum
Private gatherings- 50 people maximum
Private residence- 10 people per house (unless more than 10 people permanently reside at the residence)
Personal care workers will need to wear masks.
Gyms are permitted to reopen.

A Day Trip South

After five days of hard work fencing, Stirls and I decided to have a day off and drove with the co-driver down to Moruya which is about 90 minutes south on a nice river and did some touristy things. Lovely old buildings have been preserved there although their functions are different now eg. a solid granite bank building is now a cafe, the old post office is now a B&B.

There was a gold rush in the area in the mid 1800s so there was plenty of money about in those days.
It’s also the place that they mined the huge granite blocks for the pylons of the Sydney Harbour bridge.
We had coffee at a cafe and it was the first time I had sat in an enclosed commercial place for 7 months. Felt a bit strange at first. But they had the Covid rules in place ie. sign in with phone number and tables spaced well apart, so it was comfortable

Then we headed for Broulee on the coast and dropped the co-driver off at the newly relocated quilt store, Stephs. 

I knew this area from my surfing days in the 1960s and holidays in the 80s but Stirls had never been there so I gave him a bit of a guided tour of the beaches. It was a lovely day and the water was very blue and clear. Not much surf around however which must have frustrated about 10 guys sitting out at one of the points waiting for waves that hardly ever came.

We picked up the co-driver loaded down, not surprisingly, with parcels and drove the coastal road to Batemans Bay for lunch. This area was hit badly by the fires with people having to evacuate to the beaches. It hasn’t recovered as well as our area so far.
Lunch was fish and chips at our favourite, Innes Boatshed, on the balcony that sits over the water.

This is an institution in the Bay and is very popular. Best fresh fried fish, chips and potato scallops ever. Our fish was flake (shark), which used to be the normal fish and chips fare way back when, but you hardly see it anymore so we grabbed it. Delicious!
They are building a huge new bridge across the Clyde River there. The old one is a lift bridge which causes all sorts of traffic delays when it opens and especially when it gets stuck, which was happening more and more. 

It’s on the second main route from Melbourne to Sydney so they had to do something. I was first at the Bay in 1956, when the family moved from Melbourne to Brisbane and we drove pulling a caravan for four weeks holiday on the way. There was no bridge then, just a punt you drove onto. So I have seen a few changes in this area over the decades.
So that was our day.
Very laidback and relaxing.

COVID-19 / Australia / 13th November Update

Figures for the country are still looking good.

For instance, Victoria has now gone 14 days without a locally acquired case

All states and territories have agreed to a plan to reopen Australia's internal borders by Christmas, with the exception of Western Australia.
The Federal Health Minister said all COVID vaccines being developed around the world appeared not only to be safe and effective, but were ahead of schedule.
The government has secured agreements for four different vaccines, with a total of 134.8 million doses acquired.
The entire purchasing arrangement will cost the government $3.2 billion.
Any COVID-19 vaccine will be free for all Australians or medicare-eligible visa holders.

The National Cabinet has also agreed to a national COVID vaccination policy, which will prioritise the elderly and people particularly vulnerable to the virus.

So there does seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel for us.

Sadly the same can’t be said for many other countries around the world.

Covid-19 / Australia / Doughnut (Donut) Day

Yesterday Australia recorded its first no community Covid transmissions in 5 months.
Because of the “zero” this is now known colloquially as doughnut day.
Granted this is only a one day snapshot.
But today there are zero cases in Victoria (until recently experiencing a second wave) and one with a known source in New South Wales. All other states and territories are clear.
This is a trend that is encouraging.
The population has been through a lot of pain to achieve this goal what with lockdowns, business and school closures, social distancing, state and international border closures and increasing unemployment just to name a few.

There have been some rumblings about ‘over reaction’ and loss of ‘freedom’, mainly from the conservative side of politics, but support for Covid suppression measures runs high.
In the Queensland state election on Saturday, where restrictions have been quite severe, the incumbent left wing government was returned with an increased majority.
Many of the restrictions stay in place as a safety measure, some more stringent than others depending on the state, but increasingly they are all being relaxed.
It certainly isn’t all over yet. 

All governments are stressing the danger of complacency.
Life definitely has not returned to normal but you get the feeling the country is a little more relaxed.