COVID-19 - March 23 to April 9

Cases recorded in Syria and Gaza. Will be catastrophic in conflict zones.

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The one possible upside in this virus is that it attacks predominantly the elderly. War zones and third world countries who would have ordinarily been hardest hit if it also attacked the young, might be ok because they have way less old people. But I suppose we don’t know what happens in places that do have really high infection rates.

Some businesses close 12.30 today in staged closure (pubs, clubs, venues, gyms, indoor sports and leisure centers, restaurants and cafes take away only). Anything beyond that is speculative but i would assume all non essential will be closed in the very near future

It’s not terribly clear yet. Premier holding a press conference at 8am .

ETU informed members this morning that they expect business as usual (well, not quite as usual, but whatever) for construction workers, dependent on meeting personal distance requirements. Some big sites will have to make changes to stay open, though. And some may not be able to, anyway, with the maximum 100 people thing.

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War zones will be hit just as bad.
Just remember, third world countries have a far worse health care system. So it won’t take as many cases to overwhelm the health care system.
That’s the key thing anywhere.

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People have to use a bit of common sense. There’s no hotline to ring, no regulations. We can’t expect the government to rule on each and every workplace.

Start from keeping food and health system open and work backwards to find the other essential jobs, erring on the side of caution to close down.

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Yep. Ultimately, it comes down to how many ICU beds you have vs how many patients need one.

I don’t imagine Gaza is overly well equiped with suitable technology.

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Doubt we will hear accurate numbers from these places. Sadly it will kill people silently as it is just another problem to confront for developing countries/war zones.

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another translated article from Corriere della Serra - this one about how an Austrian ski village in Tyrol (nice part of Austria by the way, where Innsbruck is) is responsible for a large number of European infections.

Coronavirus, the Tyrolean village of Ischgl that has infected half of Europe, from Sweden to Iceland

Paolo Valentino
5-6 minutes

from our correspondent

BERLIN - An Iceland Air Boeing from Munich landed in Reykjavik on 29 February. On board were mostly Icelandic tourists, young people especially, returning from a skiing holiday in Tyrol, more precisely in Ischgl, a village of 1500 inhabitants in the region of Austria known as the after-ski paradise. Undergoing the coronavirus test, Iceland was already in emergency mode, many of them tested positive. Immediately the Icelandic government declared Tyrol a risk area. A few days were enough to understand that the Icelandic one was not an isolated case. One after another, news of people infected by Covid-19 after being on vacation in Ischgl began to bounce across Northern Europe, from Hamburg to Denmark. On March 7, the Norwegian authorities tested a group of tourists who had been to Austria in the second half of February. The next day Oslo made a disturbing announcement: 491 of Norway’s 1198 infected had been skiing in Tyrol, the majority of them in Ischgl.

Still, the Tyrolean authorities for over a week denied everything with cynicism and arrogance: “From the medical point of view - declared the health director of the Land, Franz Katzgraber - it is not likely that Tyrol was an outbreak of infection”. The ski season was to continue. Despite the alarm by virologists, who for days warned of a catastrophe in progress. And despite Austria, first among European countries, it announced the unilateral closure of its southern borders.

Only on March 7, faced with the Norwegian evidence and the first official case of coronavirus in the village, did they admit the possibility. The infected was a 36-year-old German who worked as a barman at Kitzloch, the most famous hut in the local nightlife. However, three more days passed before the place was closed. As for the rest of the village, business as usual: open slopes, operational ski lifts, hotels in operation. Nor was it enough that Germany also declared Tyrol at risk on 13 March, after the authorities of Ostalb, in Baden-Wuerttenberg had sounded a desperate alarm: 200 people who had been on the bus to Ischgl had tested positive.

It was necessary to wait until March 14 for the joint appeal of the ministers of health and the interior to arrive from Vienna to anyone who had found themselves in Tyrol since 28 February. Incredible but true, throughout the weekend that ended on Sunday 15 February, some Ischgl plants continued to operate. Chaos scenes were recorded a week ago, with hundreds of foreign tourists flocking to the few buses available from Ischgl after the announcement. None of them have been tested. Many slept in Innsbruck on Sunday night without any precautionary measures of isolation.

Now finally the village is sealed, you don’t go in and out. But it’s late, too late. In Ischgl there are almost 400 infections, double that of Vienna which has 2 million inhabitants.

Above all there are hundreds, certainly more than a thousand Europeans infected directly in the Alpine valley: half of the cases in Norway, a third of those in Denmark, a sixth of those in Sweden, a hundred of those in Hamburg. The number of those who were themselves infected by those who had been skiing in the Tyrolean valley and drinking at the Kitzloch, in turn, infected thousands of other women and men throughout Europe, is incalculable.

“The breeding ground,” renamed Der Spiegel the town. “Greed for money has defeated responsibility for the health of people and guests,” was the harsh comment of Der Standard, the most authoritative Austrian newspaper, according to which the Tyrolean government wanted to make cash with the tourist season until at the last, leaving open facilities, hotels and clubs despite the very serious evidence. Defense is very weak. The Land government “rejects criticism of delayed measures”. But the shadow of a ski season that brings 600,000 holidaymakers to Tyrol each year is more than an indication of the culpable delay with which the problem was recognized and ultimately addressed.

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Well, that probably explains the outcome from the wedding in NSW - 35 infections! In my opinion, simple “close contact” always seemed unlikely to produce so many positive tests from one or two index patients.

And it should sound a massive warning bell to everyone using or running cafe’s/ takeaway food.
Covid likely spreads rapidly via unclean glassware/utensils etc.

Edit: another thought on this - was the Austrian barman asymptomatic but contagious? Or was he feeling unwell but assumed it was just a cold? And how did he contract it in the first place?

You are entitled to Government benefits. Get onto the website my Gov website and get things moving today. Hope it all happens effortlessly for you. Take good care.

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Unleash the lions?

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No child should pass their schooling without a complete understanding of the meaning of “exponential”

The Mygov website has always been a debacle in my experience. I’ve never been able to log in.

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Fyi

Victoria to follow suit with other states on shutdown until at least April 13

By Zach Hope

Victoria has walked back its proposed shutdown of everything bar essential services - which was discussed yesterday - and has fallen in line with the Commonwealth.

The Federal Government restrictions, announced on Sunday night, include the shutdown of venues such as bars, restaurants, casinos and gyms.

These restrictions will remain in place until at least April 13, premier Daniel Andrews said on Monday morning.

There was some confusion this morning because Mr Andrews yesterday said the Victoria would shut down all non-essential business over the following two days - more strict guidelines than those announced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison later last night.

I struggled the first few times.
Once they did the two factor authentication, it worked far better.
Then my biggest problem was linking all the relevant services.

If there was one thing out of whack (name incorrect, birthdate different, etc) then you couldn’t link them and it took about a week to get it linked.

Once it linked it was brilliant.

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What are you trying to say PP2, that getting rid of us older folk is a positive. Maybe you can get yourself in the wills of all your expendable older relatives, act quickly.

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Sorry to hear of your job loss. Hope you can log on to MyGov easily enough. I had to link the MyGov to Medicare on Friday and kept having problems so I rang the Medicare no. They were fantastic & set it all up for me. So if you need help call them - you may need to wait a bit to get through but it was worth it. Good luck.

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We went out to the Merimbula Bowlo last night, the club had changed the whole dining room.
Biggest round tables could only seat five people, all smaller tables from four people down to two and singles. There were still people NOT adhering to the latest distances from each other, standing together and parents kissing their children. New rules hard for some to get used to and the way things are going there will be more implemented if people won’t get organised and run with them.

There was a funny feeling in the club almost as if the staff knew they were going to stood down.
The food was certainly NOT up to their usual standard. Definitely strange vibe. I think many people are confused, frightened and stressed off their faces right now. We all need to be kind to each other.

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Haha, I wrote that a few times, trying to make it more palatable. Just saying if it attacked elderly and children we and in particular poor countries would be in worse trouble.