Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic

[think positive]

We're in trouble.

We are in seriously deep shit.

Majority of the cases are local transmission, so the only sensible thing to do is to wind right back to everything shut down, everyone STF at home.

That could do some serious damage to small businesses though, particularly retail and hospitality, many of whom only just scraped through the last lockdown period.

yep lock it all down, for at least a month. we NEED to, HAVE to, protect our health system, this is not about us. its about ALL of us.

[David]

Looks like we're all going back into lockdown tonight. Andrews is holding a press conference at 3:15.

[Sicks Bux]

^Whatever that means.

[K]

'Changing circumstances': Melbourne hospital workers told to don masks

https://www.theage.com.au/national/vict ... 559qw.html

"Front-line staff working at many of Melbourne’s largest hospitals will now have to wear surgical masks at all times...

A move to require patients from the city’s hotspot areas to wear masks is also being considered, with the Australian Medical Association set to discuss the issue with Victorian health authorities within the next day.

A new requirement for staff in all clinical areas to wear a mask now applies at The Royal Melbourne Hospital in Parkville, Northern Hospital in Epping and the Austin Hospital in Heidelberg.

But it is understood most major hospitals in Melbourne have now implemented the requirement..."

[K]

Doctors 'bullied' by hospital administration for asking to wear masks

https://www.theage.com.au/national/doct ... 558v2.html

"A specialist doctor at a major Melbourne public hospital said medical staff anxious about contracting SARS-CoV-2 and unable to access hospital supplies were forbidden from bringing their own cloth or surgical masks to wear.

Those who defied management and wore masks were subject to "black stares" and rebukes, the doctor said."

[Dark Beanie]

Time to hibernate, come back out in Spring

[David]

^Whatever that means.

Stage 3 restrictions, apparently (no leaving home for anything other than the four accepted reasons: essential work, physical exercise, buying groceries and medical appointments). Still waiting for official confirmation, though.

[David]

Yeah, Andrews has just confirmed it. All of metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire are back to Stage 3 restrictions from midnight tomorrow night for at least six weeks.

[Jezza]

Restrictions lifted/eased at the earliest around August 19.

[K]

How is "essential work" defined? (I assume the same as last time, but I don't know now what that was.)

[stui magpie]

Just don't cancel elective surgery again.

[K]

Meanwhile in the US...

States mandate masks, begin to shut down again as coronavirus cases soar and hospitalizations rise

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national ... story.html

"After an Independence Day weekend that attracted large crowds to fireworks displays and produced scenes of Americans drinking and partying without masks, health officials warned of hospitals running out of space and infection spreading rampantly.
...

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) announced that face coverings will be mandatory inside buildings, and he asked residents to comply voluntarily. ...

Local ABC affiliate WCHS reported that Justice added that he had put off mandating masks but eventually decided “it is the very thing I want to do the most because I know in my heart if we don’t, we are going to have funeral after funeral.”
...

Dozens of former government scientists on Monday called for a science-based approach.

“Sidelining science has already cost lives, imperiled the safety of our loved ones, compromised our ability to safely reopen our businesses, schools, and places of worship, and endangered the health of our democracy itself,” wrote officials..."

[Sicks Bux]

Lock us up, lock us up, lock us up!

But seriously, I hope they start adequately funding emergency accomodation for the homeless again after cutting it at the end of last week.

[think positive]

How is "essential work" defined? (I assume the same as last time, but I don't know now what that was.)

"At a press conference on Tuesday, Mr Morrison said essential workers meant: "it can be essential in a service, whether it's a nurse or a doctor or a schoolteacher, or a public servant who is working tonight to ensure that we can get even greater capacity in our Centrelink offices, working until 8[pm] under the new arrangement in the call centres - these are all essential jobs.”

"People stacking shelves - that is essential. People earning money in their family when another member of their family may have lost their job and can no longer earn - that's an essential job."

Professor of Public Health at the Queensland University of Technology, Gerard Fitzgerald, said the definition of an essential worker is broad and hard to define.

“If you think about people in emergency departments, ambulance, paramedics being critical to the management of any outbreak in our community, we also need people who keep them there,” he said.

“It's that backroom stuff that we tend to forget about - the power, the fuel, the water, the food - all those sort of things that are essential to keep that person operating. So it is that consequential essential workforce that's also important.”

How can essential workers stay safe?
Supermarket workers are an example of people deemed essential to working through the shutdown, manning checkouts or stacking shelves.

People employed by government services such as Medicare and Centrelink are also working in response to the high numbers of enquiries during this time.

Delivery and garbage truck drivers, as well as postmen-and-women, will also continue their essential services.

[eddiesmith]

From the Border Mail about two new cases in Albury

“ The actual degree of contact within that area was minimal and transient actually; just a train ride, taxi ride, even whilst wearing a mask and maintaining precautions that way. It speaks of the need to remain vigilant."