Coronavirus

Thats right. Back in the old days there were warehouses. Now there arent, because its cheaper. I’m over it all. Coles wont accept me for priority, they can go to hell.

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I believe you’re correct, but for priority assistance customers why isn’t there a process that pulls those key items off the pallet before they go into the store. It’s not like you’re running store to store like everyone else.

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Getting my flu shot today, thought it best to do what I can to stave off flu and hopefully keep my immunity strong in case the ol’ ‘rona passes my way. Plus I work in a large hospital so we’re constantly hassled to get our flu shot.

I’ve been very impressed with Australian numbers, except for NSW and TAS of course. But I’m starting to wonder what the right balance should be, or should have been between cases and deaths, and ICU numbers and the economy. At one extreme there’s NZ whose figures now aren’t that much better than Australia’s, while at the other extreme there’s Sweden who has gone for herd immunity but with 10 million people now have over 1300 deaths.

Our intensive care units are not struggling and it’s clear now that they won’t struggle, far far from it. So have we gone too hard? If hard was the right option, why not Stage 4 like New Zealand? Are long-term or even just short-term Stage 3 restrictions the perfect balance, or should we not have ensured so many people lost their jobs?

No, we haven’t gone too hard. Some of us think we should have gone harder and sooner. Don’t be seduced by the idea of opening everything up too soon. Death isn’t far away for some of us, if that happens. Jobs lost is a pain in the butt, but better than dying, don’t you think? The government should be doing more for casuals and backpacker workers, though, leaving them out of the Jobkeeper package is just unconscionable.

I think that Australia has gone hard enough to flatten the curve but not harder than needed.

As to unemployment it’s only predicted to reach 10%, that’s only 90s figures and we survived that without too many problems.

10% unemployment or low COVID-19 case numbers? I know which one I’d choose.

As to the hosptial ICU departments being able to cope and being almost empty that’s where we’re supposed to be at this point in the curve.

Remember that cases and deaths lag numbers by several weeks, come back in 3 to 4 weeks and see if the ICUs are still empty…

We missed the boat as did most countries (Taiwan is one notable exception). We did not fully lock down our international borders until March 17, that was utter incompetence. We closed down to China on February 1 which was great, but a half-measure. We missed our opportunity to manage this well, most things we did in February and March were at the time obviously a week or two behind when they should have been done.

We have 62 people in ICU, our normal capacity is 2200, and we made provisions to at least double our capacity if needed (which it clearly won’t). We peaked at 96 ICU cases, and other than Tasmania, Australia’s ICU wards will be more than fine.

At some point, things have to slowly start returning to normal. There is no magical potion or vaccine that will hit the market any time soon. Yes we want to see a period of next 0-5 new daily cases, the lower the better, but anywhere between 20% to 80% of people could be asymptomatic so we should not expect to keep our daily numbers under 5.

This has impacted me far less than most, I have my job, I still go to work every day, and I don’t have much of a social life anyway. If anything I have benefitted because as a hospital worker, I’ve been getting free parking, priority access to Bunnings and supermarkets, as well as free or half-price meals at some eateries (Nandos, New York Minute, etc). But many people are hurting, and that needs an end point. Things need to loosen up by June 1.

We have done well, but we should have stopped entry from the USA much earlier. We suffered far more cases from there than from anywhere else.

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Absolutely. Just ridiculous for the government to watch numbers increase in new parts of the world, only then to decide “yeah maybe we’ll stop people coming from countries a, b and c”. Then the virus spreads to another country and another country, and we’re just negligently allowing more and more potential cases into Australia. China, the WHO and the Australian government are all responsible for this. At least we’re not Europe or the US, that’s one positive.

We seem to be doing OK in spite of the idiocy of some.

However when I realised that yesterday’s protests were going ahead, ban or no ban, I decided that it might be prudent to have groceries delivered again for a couple of weeks. We’ve got no known active cases in the Hunter region, but you just don’t know whats still bubbling out there.

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I wouldn’t be too concerned about numbers climbing. I expect things to largely return to normal by July 1. Crowds will return to sports this year, as will travel to NZ. International travel unlikely before December.

I think that’s a bit optimistic, the Queensland government have already said they’re keeping the state borders closed until September. And WA aren’t looking at opening up yet either.

Possibly there might be a partial open excluding Vic and NSW.

Japan hit 0 deaths for the first time in months, but we sill have infections upticking since we ended our state of emergency on May 31st. By June 3rd, some restrictions had already been re-instituted.

I’ve been remote work since the last week of March and I am not slated to return until July 1st at the earliest.

90% of my job can be done remotely, or by remoting into my office PC, so I have pretty much no need to be anywhere near the building. I also commute by train 90 minutes each way, and that is the bigger reason they don’t want me coming into the office.

NZ has eliminated the virus at least, and reopened everything internally. I can’t wait to have that trans-tasman bubble opened so we can go there for holidays again.

Yeah Qld are being overly cautious in my opinion, I’d even go as far to call it ridiculous. Qld have 5 active cases from a peak of 902 in April. That said, NSW active cases are coming down very slowly and I honestly have to question the accuracy of their reporting.

Click and scroll down to 11-12 June

Most states had very low or zero new cases recently but the recents protests (worthy as the cause is) have the potential to cause an uptick in the numbers, combine that with the relaxing of interstate travel and we might see a moderate increase in a week or two.

If that doesn’t happen then Australia should be back to ‘almost normal’ like NZ is in a month, maybe two months max (international travel excepted).

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I don’t think the protests will bring up the numbers, I think the day to day stuff will bring it up. The shops are packed again and not many are social distancing even though stores try and enforce the rules.

I think protests will be the “excuse” for the numbers when they jump up. The govt pretty much said they were expecting the numbers to move again once rules were relaxed and it makes sense. Some people probably already have it and are just assuming it’s the flu.

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The federal government should also consider the lack of social distancing for the millions who went shopping indoors last weekend, and not just the tens of thousands who were protesting outdoors.

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Quite a few photos of shops and weekend markets circulating for the last couple weeks where people seem to think all is good, so not physical/social distancing at all.

It’s quite concerning… Still tens of thousands getting ill, and thousands others dying, around the world. It’s far from close to over.

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