COVID-19 / Australia / 12th, 15th & 17th February Updates

New South Wales has entered its 26th day without local virus transmissions.

In Victoria they now have a Melbourne quarantine hotel (Airport Holiday Inn) cluster with 13 cases.
A family of three who are believed to have contracted the virus overseas and, possibly due to the use of a “nebuliser” machine, the virus from their room was able to spread out into the hotel.
They had failed to notify authorities of this piece of medical equipment on arrival.
If they had they would have been moved to a medihotel.

The non declaration was denied by the person concerned on 13/1.

Two returned travellers tested positive after they left quarantine. They caught the disease in the hotel.
Four quarantine workers are infected including at least one authorised officer and one worker who delivered food to rooms.
Four household close contacts have been infected, two are close contacts of infected hotel quarantine staff. The other two’s connection is not yet known. All would have been in quarantine for at least part of their infectious period.
Unfortunately it is the UK variant of the virus that is involved.
Yet again the hotel quarantine situation is the source of an ‘escape’.
Victoria is now considering another lockdown.
Update: 1pm
Victoria will go into a five day lockdown today. 

One of the above cases spent more than eight hours at a busy airport cafe while infectious on Tuesday. The entire Terminal 4 is now considered a hotspot. Between 4000 and 5000 people are believed to have passed through the terminal during the exposure period. One flight was to a small coastal town a couple of hours to the south of us, another to a coastal city two hours to the north. All passengers have to self isolated for five days. Even people driving from Victoria into New South Wales face the same isolation period.

Update: 15th February 

One new locally acquired COVID-19 case was confirmed in Victoria on Monday, along with one new case among a returned traveller in hotel quarantine. This brings the total to 17 local transmissions since the recent outbreak. More are expected. The 5 day lockdown continues. They are now into day3.

No new local cases have been confirmed in New South Wales for the 29th day in a row and in Queensland for the 38th straight day.
Australia suspended its quarantine-free travel arrangement with New Zealand on Sunday following the detection of COVID-19 in a couple and their daughter in Auckland at the weekend.

Meanwhile the first shipment of vaccine, the Pfizer product, has arrived in Australia.

Update: 17th February

Victoria has registered zero local transmissions so it seems to Airport Holiday Inn outbreak has been contained.

The lockdown will end at midnight tonight.

Meanwhile the locally produced AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved for all age groups. The Therapeutic Goods Administration said the AstraZeneca vaccine is effective at preventing 82% of people contracting Covid-19 (but 100% effective at preventing seriousness illness and death).
I am in group 1B and should get my first shot early March. Whether it will be the Pfizer or AstraZeneca product have no idea but it really is not a concern.

The co-driver is in group 2A and will get her shot a little later.
Once most of the population has completed both shots (it’s not mandatory) we should all be breathing a little easier.
Just 64% of Australians will “definitely” get a Covid-19 vaccine while more than one quarter (27%) are unsure, according to latest government research.
Some 9% of Australians aged over 16 said they will “definitely not” get the vaccine, according to a poll commissioned by the health department.

End October is the target date.

It will then be interesting to watch the government deal with opening our international border again, making sure virus ‘carriers’ arrivals are screened out.
In reality we don’t expect to be able to travel overseas until well into 2022.