Victoria’s drastic measures to curb the continuing increase of COVID-19 cases. A new test offers a glimmer of hope. The UK city going back into lockdown. And chaos continues to reign in the United States.
Flight diversion
Victoria’s cases have surged so quickly the state has overtaken Italy for infections on a per-capita basis (though Italy’s curve has flattened).
Victoria confirmed 64 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday and 75 cases on Monday. Italy was an early epicentre for the pandemic, and has had over 240,000 cases and almost 35,000 deaths.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has announced a judicial inquiry into the operation of the hotel quarantine program. Staff breached infection control protocols, with reports they had received limited expert advice on how to use personal protective equipment, before spreading the disease to the community.
Andrews has also asked for repatriation flights to be diverted to other cities for the next two weeks while the quarantine program is “reset”.
As of midnight tonight, 10 postcodes linked to outbreaks will go into local lockdown until at least July 29. The stay-at-home order extends to 36 suburbs and affects around 311,000 people. Police will be patrolling these areas issuing on-the-spot fines for those leaving their homes without a valid reason.
Victoria’s lockdown is in stark contrast to the rest of the country: yesterday Queensland announced it will reopen its borders to everywhere except Victoria on July 10, and recorded no new cases today. And NSW today moves to the next stage of reopening, with no limit on the number of people allowed in indoor venues so long as there are four square metres per person.
Australia is now on the European Union’s list of countries whose citizens will be allowed to visit — though it does a fat lot of good given Australian citizens aren’t allowed to leave Australia without a valid reason.
Hope in new test
Another new test offers hope for fast diagnosis of not just COVID-19, but of multiple viral, bacterial or fungal infections. This is good news given the speculation about another pandemic, after a flu carried by pigs was discovered in China.
The test, called c-Find, hopes to detect infections within minutes from blood, mucus or saliva using a portable point-of-care device. It is being developed by the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research.
UK local lockdowns
Victoria isn’t the only place experiencing a resurgence in infections — Leicester in the UK is also set to go into local lockdown after a surge in cases.
While the rest of the country is set to reopen this Saturday, non-essential stores in Leicester will have to close up shop. The area has three times more daily cases than the next highest city and accounts for 10% of all positive cases in the country over the past week.
United States of chaos
The US isn’t faring so well either, with National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr Anthony Fauci warning the daily surge in coronavirus cases in the US could more than double to 100,000 a day.
Videos have emerged on social media of Americans delaying flights and being kicked out of stores after refusing to wear face masks, with some arguing wearing masks impede liberties.
US President Donald Trump has refused to endorse masks or wear them publicly, going so far as to suggest they could be counter-productive.
Victoria’s clusters have revived calls to make face masks mandatory. In NSW, as restrictions ease, there are calls to require masks to be worn on public transport.
The Australian government currently does not advise the use amid low community transmission rates and fears of shortages for healthcare workers.
What about the number of people refusing tests?
If I were involved in planning for the “test and trace” strategy, I just wouldn’t have imagined that so many people would refuse tests. I have heard news conferences where reporters try to get to the bottom of this, but politicians (and, not to their credit, health experts) prefer to duck the question and mumble about children and people with dementia and then move on to unconvincing deflecting platitudes.
Something is being hidden from us, but I have no idea what it is.
Look at it from another angle: if the government had undisclosed criteria for refusing testing to a certain demographic, there would be an outcry. But when individuals refuse testing, putting the health and livelihoods of other Australians at risk, we need to know who it is and how to overcome the risks refusal opens up.
There have been some hints that recent immigrants are disproportionately over-represented in Melbourne’s “hot-spot” suburbs. And with that there are complaints from ethnic community groups that the government has not communicated clearly enough to their members.
But, surely, the first responsibility of ethnic community groups is the welfare of their members and with that would go the timely communication of health advice. If these community groups are taking any funding at all from any level of government (taxpayers/ratepayers), surely their first responsibility is to undertake that communication as their top priority – immediately, willingly, voluntarily and without equivocation.
Recalling some of those video clips we saw on the news every night back in January when the virus was only China’s problem, and seeing police dragging protesting citizens into vans, I wonder if that was how the Chinese authorities dealt with people who refused to be tested.
It’s false equivalence to say Victoria’s per capita rate of infection has surpassed Italy’s (which is what I assume your pay-walled link claims) because you are comparing one state with a whole country. Italy’s hotspot was pretty localised.
I suspect the Oz had an agenda.
What The Australian reports is: “Victoria’s surge in new cases has accelerated so fast in the past week that its infection rate is now greater than Italy’s on a per-capita basis.”
What would their agenda be? (Not being aggressive, just curious.)
The agenda is “See how incompetent the Victorian Labor government is – worse than Italy!”
Hard to judge at this stage how well Andrews has done. So far he appears to have done very well, assisted by a Health Minister who also appears very competent. I was impressed with her during the fires and my positive impression continues (from outside Victoria). The balance between Andrews, Mikakos and Sutton appears to be just right, too.
But despite this, it’s the outcomes that really matter: illnesses, deaths and economic management.
Being a state premier over the past few years must feel like a mixture of whack-a-mole, herding cats and the ghastly realisation that you depend on a very large team of mixed abilities and commitment.
I’m glad he’s doing it, and I’m the one sitting back behind a keyboard passing judgement.
Sudden surges in corona are a random event and could occur in any state as we ease restrictions. This is the new normal. The only way ro avoid such outbreaks is complete elimination of the virus and the cost/effort of this was deemed too high by our federal government.
Yes, complete elimination of the virus comes at too high a cost. But suppression would be far more effective if all those recalcitrant coots would take the test and then isolate if appropriate.
Why not full 3 week isolation for refuseniks rather than the fortnight of quarantine?
Without exception.
At their own full expense (accommodation, supervision, infrastructure). It’s their choice, why should the taxpayer foot the bill? The State governments should put this in place immediately because it’s going to apply to them and it’ll be going on for years – probably with other pandemics.
Since federation Australia has been a world leader in quarantine and the associated legislation and the willingness to use it. Let’s continue this approach across the board and not get seduced into looking over our shoulders at what, say, the UK or the US are doing before we act.