Victoria recorded 66 new cases of coronavirus on Friday, which is five days straight of more than 60 cases.
Found elsewhere COVID-19 update Earlier this week I was asked what’s happening in Victoria (regarding the increased numbers of COVID-19 diagnoses). It got me thinking; why has this outbreak occurred? Let me start by making a few things clear: - the restrictions in Victoria were the same as elsewhere in Australia. - the easing of these restrictions have been slower here than elsewhere in Australia. We have gone back to no more than 5 guests at home and no more than 20 at a restaurant. You can’t buy a drink at a premises unless you are seated and order a meal. - there are less respiratory infections than usual at this time of the year compared with other years. At our General Practice we are seeing far fewer infections and most people are well. I should add that my work is 50km south of Melbourne CBD, but there does not appear to be the usual number of coughs and colds in general. - last week I spoke about increased complacency and I continue to be dismayed by the lack of physical distancing that I observe when I am out shopping. This is certainly an important factor. It is also important to recognize the degree of testing for COVID-19 in Victoria; over 880000 tests. NSW has done a similar number of tests and is the State with the highest number of positive COVID-19 tests. I will make an important distinction between NSW and Victoria shortly. The next closest State in terms of testing is Qld with less than half that of Victoria. The next closest State is WA with less than a quarter of the tests. Victoria is aiming to test ALL RESIDENTS in the hotspots regardless of whether they have symptoms or not. This aggressive approach to testing is uncovering more and more cases of COVID-19, mostly from unknown sources and community spread. This is a concern. President Trump famously said that to reduce the number of cases of COVID-19, all they need to do is to reduce the number of tests. In Victoria we appear to be getting asymptomatic community spread. If you don’t test aggressively, you won’t find these infections. We have seen a similar pattern to what is happening in Victoria occur in other countries such as China, Germany and Singapore to name a few. The current outbreak in Victoria can be traced back to a few individuals not complying with restrictions; a large family gathering, some security guards not complying with the distancing guidelines and others going into public when they were unwell. The surge in cases in Victoria started with a few contagious individuals. Complacency coupled with human nature to be ‘free and make my own decisions’ has led to 60-70 new cases per day for the last week and 106 cases being diagnosed today. The government is scrambling to control the outbreak by locking down suburbs and has added a hard lock down of a number of apartment blocks that have clusters today. Make no mistake, this is different to what happened in March and April. Early on, most cases were from returned travelers who were easily identified and quarantined, as was the case in NSW. The current Victorian outbreak is due to community transmission. It is harder to identify those who may be infected or contagious. They are not all returning on a plane or ship. They are scattered through our suburbs; some without symptoms others with a ‘cold’. Most are contagious before they know they are sick. Families and friends are reconnecting and sharing meals. They often hug and may kiss. They spend hours together. This is now how SARS-CoV-2 is spreading in Victoria. Victoria is at a watershed. This is the real test as to how well Australia will get through the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The virus has a foothold in suburban Melbourne. The government response has been swift and appropriate. I hope it is effective. It is two weeks since restrictions were increased and three days since hotspot suburbs were put into lockdown. I think the numbers may continue to rise for the next week or so. I actually hope they stabilize. I do not think the rate of infection will start to fall for another 10 days or so. Victoria has been unlucky. Public health policy is not to blame. Individual actions are the reason this has happened. It is important to recognize, this could happen anywhere in Australia. Our population is still vulnerable, the virus is still present and in many places, large crowds are permitted. It would only take one, asymptomatic but contagious individual to spark an outbreak elsewhere. In Victoria, hospitalizations are creeping up. The number in ICU is still small but has increased. It takes time to see the numbers of severe cases to rise. It is likely to increase in Victoria in the next few weeks. Our best defence is individuals accepting personal responsibility for public health and well-being. It is a pain. No-one likes it but it must be done. Australians did very well first time around. Let’s see how we do now.COVID-19 update Earlier this week I was asked what’s happening in Victoria (regarding the increased numbers of COVID-19 diagnoses). It got me thinking; why has this outbreak occurred? Let me start by making a few things clear: - the restrictions in Victoria were the same as elsewhere in Australia. - the easing of these restrictions have been slower here than elsewhere in Australia. We have gone back to no more than 5 guests at home and no more than 20 at a restaurant. You can’t buy a drink at a premises unless you are seated and order a meal. - there are less respiratory infections than usual at this time of the year compared with other years. At our General Practice we are seeing far fewer infections and most people are well. I should add that my work is 50km south of Melbourne CBD, but there does not appear to be the usual number of coughs and colds in general. - last week I spoke about increased complacency and I continue to be dismayed by the lack of physical distancing that I observe when I am out shopping. This is certainly an important factor. It is also important to recognize the degree of testing for COVID-19 in Victoria; over 880000 tests. NSW has done a similar number of tests and is the State with the highest number of positive COVID-19 tests. I will make an important distinction between NSW and Victoria shortly. The next closest State in terms of testing is Qld with less than half that of Victoria. The next closest State is WA with less than a quarter of the tests. Victoria is aiming to test ALL RESIDENTS in the hotspots regardless of whether they have symptoms or not. This aggressive approach to testing is uncovering more and more cases of COVID-19, mostly from unknown sources and community spread. This is a concern. President Trump famously said that to reduce the number of cases of COVID-19, all they need to do is to reduce the number of tests. In Victoria we appear to be getting asymptomatic community spread. If you don’t test aggressively, you won’t find these infections. We have seen a similar pattern to what is happening in Victoria occur in other countries such as China, Germany and Singapore to name a few. The current outbreak in Victoria can be traced back to a few individuals not complying with restrictions; a large family gathering, some security guards not complying with the distancing guidelines and others going into public when they were unwell. The surge in cases in Victoria started with a few contagious individuals. Complacency coupled with human nature to be ‘free and make my own decisions’ has led to 60-70 new cases per day for the last week and 106 cases being diagnosed today. The government is scrambling to control the outbreak by locking down suburbs and has added a hard lock down of a number of apartment blocks that have clusters today. Make no mistake, this is different to what happened in March and April. Early on, most cases were from returned travelers who were easily identified and quarantined, as was the case in NSW. The current Victorian outbreak is due to community transmission. It is harder to identify those who may be infected or contagious. They are not all returning on a plane or ship. They are scattered through our suburbs; some without symptoms others with a ‘cold’. Most are contagious before they know they are sick. Families and friends are reconnecting and sharing meals. They often hug and may kiss. They spend hours together. This is now how SARS-CoV-2 is spreading in Victoria. Victoria is at a watershed. This is the real test as to how well Australia will get through the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The virus has a foothold in suburban Melbourne. The government response has been swift and appropriate. I hope it is effective. It is two weeks since restrictions were increased and three days since hotspot suburbs were put into lockdown. I think the numbers may continue to rise for the next week or so. I actually hope they stabilize. I do not think the rate of infection will start to fall for another 10 days or so. Victoria has been unlucky. Public health policy is not to blame. Individual actions are the reason this has happened. It is important to recognize, this could happen anywhere in Australia. Our population is still vulnerable, the virus is still present and in many places, large crowds are permitted. It would only take one, asymptomatic but contagious individual to spark an outbreak elsewhere. In Victoria, hospitalizations are creeping up. The number in ICU is still small but has increased. It takes time to see the numbers of severe cases to rise. It is likely to increase in Victoria in the next few weeks. Our best defence is individuals accepting personal responsibility for public health and well-being. It is a pain. No-one likes it but it must be done. Australians did very well first time around. Let’s see how we do now. Image Unavailable, Please Login
What an absolute load of rubbish! I’d like to know who the fool was who wrote that steaming pile of BS. Sounds like it came straight from Chairman Dan’s PR department. “Let me start by making a few things clear: - the restrictions in Victoria were the same as elsewhere in Australia.“ Not even close, Labor stooge.
Not even close. We were always allowed to have up to ten people at any house at any time. We could always go for a drive anywhere we liked (within the State of course), with whoever we wanted in the car. We could fish, swim, walk the dog, shop, sit in the park with a book, buy (takeaway) food anywhere, anytime and many other things that were banned in Victoria. As far as I know, there were only a tiny number of fines issued here and only for flagrant breaches of the “no more than ten” rule. I’m pretty sure WA was much the same. VIC had by far the most restrictive rules in the country.
No. Which is why it’s such an interesting question as to why Vic (well, Melbourne, really) is in the position it is in. The excuses trotted out by that apologist for Dan are way off the mark and don't stand up to any scrutiny at all. No doubt that rubbish was posted on social media and the assumption was that most people reading it would be stupid enough to believe it, just because it came from a doctor.