Coronavirus (Covid19) Corner

[Marilyn]

We have plenty of toilet paper....

[Marilyn]

We are not even allowed to go for a walk! Gosh...that shocked me. Only one person to visit a supermarket/chemist. That is fine, but no outdoor exercise seems very very harsh.

[Cathy]

I spent 1 and a half hours slowly moving ahead in one of the slowly moving snaking queue’s at my supermarket this afternoon.
Only one person from the family of 13, who now have the virus showed symptoms.
The new cluster has been traced back to a person who very recently returned to Australia from England.

[Marilyn]

The Premier classes this as “ a sneaky strain of Covid, with a transfer period of 24 hours”
????? Who knows.
But not to be able to go for our daily rural walk will have consequences for me at least. It keeps me mobile with my Sciatica. Plus it is good for our Diabetes of course, but my main worry is that my Sciatica may increase. I shall have to do a step routine in the lounge room.
No worries at all about food or toilet paper etc. I just feel gutted not being able to go for a walk.

[Tizer]

Breaking news in the UK...this is all that's on the BBC web site as I write...as Tripps would say `Is there a German word for schadenfreude?'
`The head of NHS Test and Trace is self-isolating after receiving a notification from the NHS mobile app.' LINK

[Stanley]

And a PM.

[Tizer]

The Premier classes this as “ a sneaky strain of Covid, with a transfer period of 24 hours”

I wonder what he means by `transfer period of 24 hours'. As I understand it, covid-19 starts reproducing and being spread almost immediately it gets in your nose but symptoms don't usually show until about 3 days have past. So it can pass through a series of people, from one to the other, all within 24 hours but they won't show symptoms for s few days.
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I notice the UK PM is boasting about a big financial boost for the country's military forces. More important would be to spend that money and much more on future-proofing against the further pandemics we are sure to face in coming years. in fact it's time to change the approach altogether and for the world's nations to combine in an effort to prepare us much better to deal with a pandemic. The leaders should get together, not in a fancy Swiss resort but on something like Zoom, and agree on what action will be taken in future pandemics and to categorise them to make it easy to put out a warning when necessary. If a country suddenly finds it has a new virus on the loose it's leader would put out, say, a category 5 warning and every other leader would know exactly what precautions to take.

[Marilyn]

I don’t understand what was meant either Tiz. There was some talk of the outside of a home delivered Pizza box being infected with Covid. Further talk suggested it was not from simply being handled, but possibly being sneezed over.
All takeaway is in lockdown, all pubs etc. they seem to be referring to a “strain” of Covid that they can identify and trace to origin. This was supposedly originating from a family member who worked in a “medi-hotel”, which was quarantining repatriated Aussies returning from UK and other parts.

[Marilyn]

ANYWAY...our immediate, total, brutal lockdown seems to be working. This is because we are Australian. We follow orders when our government says the word. ( well most of us do...and those that don’t end up in jail)

[plaques]

Personally I've already cancelled Christmas. Its no longer a religious festival for the believers but more of big booze up and eat as much as you can exercise. The Queen's speech is something to be avoided at all costs with platitudes about poverty while still demanding more money to support an ever widening family tree or should I say forest. Time to put all nonsense into the dustbin of historical mythology and accept that people just need a brake from the daily scam of feeding £millions to the top 0.01% and seeing nothing in return except glib replies 'I pay all the tax demanded'. Humbug, Humbug.

[Tizer]

Maz, your comment about following orders makes me think of Sweden. Yesterday I listened to a radio progamme about Sweden and heard the Swedes explaining that they have avoided the need for any lockdowns because they always do what the government tells them. They stress this is not because they're unable to think for themselves but that they have trustworthy politicians who tell them the truth, treat them like adults and let them think for themselves. I wish we had that in the UK!

[Marilyn]

Experts are questioning this claim that we have some kind of super-Covid strain, saying it is just not possible, as it hasn’t occurred elsewhere in the world. It seems to be carried without effort or symptoms in the young, but has an incubation period causing symptoms within 24 hours in older persons. I don’t really understand it, as the original source was from repatriated Australians from UK/Europe who were under quarantine in a medi-hotel ( 14 days quarantine originally and now they have to do 28 days).
It spread because 2 security guards and a cleaner ( all from the same family) got infected. I believe the cleaner ( asymptomatic) also had a second job delivering pizzas from a pizza bar, owned by other members of the same family. A customer must have got Covid from handling the outside of their home delivered pizza. Covid was found on the exterior of the pizza box.
They are looking into a ten day period of deliveries from the pizza bar. Thousands are now in quarantine ( contacts of contacts etc) The rest of us just in lock down.

The other problem of course, is that the repatriated Australians serving quarantine in the medi hotels, are not all from Adelaide. When other states were dealing with their own Covid outbreaks, places like Adelaide took on the incoming returnees because we were a safe place. If they come out of quarantine, they will naturally want to return to their homes, which they can’t do, due to border closures. The first fortnight of their quarantine was at their own expense, but the second fortnight will be covered by the government. When they are allowed to return home, they must quarantine again for a fortnight in their own homes. I understand how distressing this is for the people involved. Nice to be on home soil I expect, but living with kids in a hotel room for a month must be horrendous. They do have balconies and access to fresh air and sunlight, but that doesn’t prevent frustration, especially if they can’t get medications etc.

[Stanley]

Couldn't agree more about abolishing Xmas, ignoring whingeing Royals claiming they are essential and working hard and the sheer stupidity of announcing higher spending on military and transport when only giving peanuts to Green policies and underfunding local councils.
At the same time, stupidity like this is happening and when found out is being ignored... (We have spent over £12billion on outsourcing testing alone)

[Marilyn]

Just an update...about this damn pizza box, which wasn’t making sense to anyone. The individual claims he had it home delivered, then got sick. Turns out the stupid individual lied to authorities, leading them a merry dance. The individual actually WORKED at the pizza bar as a kitchen hand, and likely took the pizza home. This revelation gives a different time line ( a more “normal” timeline to the virus) because the individual may have been infected for days just like his co-workers. We all knew things were not adding up. The pizza bar obviously lied also by not disclosing that the individual worked there also. Heads will roll for this. Authorities are now seeking more of the shop’s customers for testing and quarantine.
In the meantime, we are still under lock down, but are now allowed to leave the house for a walk. I expect we shall do that shortly. All dogs will be happy now, cos they can go “walkies”.

[Tizer]

Following on from Stanley's PE clip on testing, the article below is on the BBC's web site after an investigation by several of their journalists. It shows terrible mistakes by the government...
`Coronavirus: Inside test-and-trace - how the 'world beater' went wrong' LINK
`...The seeds for this were sown back on 17 March before the first lockdown was announced when a group of companies met with government to discuss testing. That meeting included now-key players Randox and ThermoFisher, two health-technology firms. But no representatives speaking for the existing NHS labs sector were involved, says Allan Wilson, president of the Institute of Biomedical Science. "There wasn't any consultation with the service itself." Very quickly the direction of travel became clear - the government turned to its commercial partners to set up large, centralised labs that sat outside any existing healthcare or research structures....
`Dr Rachael Liebmann, vice-chair at the Royal College of Pathologists, who works in both private and NHS labs, says: "The default was to go outside the NHS for something new and shiny. But there was not enough input from people who understood testing." According to Allan Wilson, the government was "speaking directly to the commercial companies and saying - what can you do for us?" There was no voice of challenge, "saying 'that won't work'"...'.

[plaques]

The pizza bar obviously lied also by not disclosing that the individual worked there also.

We have a similar problem with agency workers identified as possible spreaders in care homes. What our government chooses to ignore or purposely doesn't want to acknowledge is that those at the bottom income levels have to take on numerous ad hock jobs (moonlighting) just to make ends meet. There must be all armies of people with two or three little jobs that are under the radar as far as Track and Trace is concerned. It used to be called the black economy, cash in hand, nod, nod, wink, wink, which didn't matter too much under normal circumstances but could be one of the main conduits for spreading covid.

[Cathy]

The SA teenager who single-handedly sparked - and ended- one of the world’s strictest lockdowns, has caused 4,500 close contacts to be put into isolation, and that number is expected to grow.
Will he be charged? So far, No, because he lied to Health Workers and there is no law in place to punish that.
But our government , health authorities and police are fuming, and it’s quite possible something will be done.

[Tizer]

It's a good (bad?) example of how much a single person can cause the wide spread of a virus. It will have been the same when we in the UK had a bloke come back infected from a party in a Swiss ski resort at the beginning of this year. And just think when you extrapolate to all those people who were being allowed to fly into the country in the early days with no control and no tracking.

[Big Kev]

This weekend's Covid-19 tip, if you have a glass of wine in each hand you can't touch your face

[Marilyn]

I can only think of three reasons why that silly idiot would have lied to authorities and why the pizza bar did too...
1. He is an illegal immigrant
2. He is on Social Security Payments of some sort but earning money too
3. He is on Worker’s Comp, but earning money whilst he claims he cannot work

Bet you it is Number 2. So he will get in trouble if he is doing that. I hope they hang the little toe-rag and the pizza bar owners out to dry!

[plaques]

Marilyn, Here's an extract from our papers.Pizza Boy As always things are not as they seem.

In Marshall’s eyes the facts were simple: a security guard at Adelaide’s Peppers medi-hotel was infected with Covid-19. They also worked at the Woodville Pizza Bar in the city.

In some ways it was a convenient out for the state premier and health authorities who were feeling the heat over a decision to outsource security work in the state’s quarantine hotels. Low pay and a failure to regularly test workers had put them at risk and caused what many thought was a second wave.

[Marilyn]

But he didnt have to lie. He was quite within his rights to have a second job. It was the fact he said his pizza was home delivered and that he had never physically been to the pizza bar, that had authorities on high alert because they believed he became Covid positive from the pizza delivery within 24 hours of touching the outside of the box. He became their “wild card” in that respect. It could have meant the virus was becoming more virulent...so how many more people were at risk? Time to lock down. He could have been Covid positive for a week, but his lie skewed the whole picture.
I started smelling a rat before the Premier did. Once I heard it was the same strain, I kept muttering to myself “someone is telling Porky Pies!” ( and I kept coming back to the pizza)
I support our Premier’s decision.

[Marilyn]

Hmmmm...seems he was option number One! Overseas person working illegally! There you go. Pizza Bar is in deep “s@#t”.

[plaques]

I'll repeat what I said in a previous post....

There must be all armies of people with two or three little jobs that are under the radar as far as Track and Trace is concerned. It used to be called the black economy, cash in hand, nod, nod, wink, wink, which didn't matter too much under normal circumstances but could be one of the main conduits for spreading covid.

I still wouldn't jump to the conclusion it was an 'illegal' immigrant. And ask yourself why the emphasis on 'immigrant'. Sounds like a bigoted Trumpism to deflect the real problem away from themselves.

[Marilyn]

I think he was on a student visa. Not allowed to work. They are both vulnerable and exploited.