Melbourne apartment towers complete lockdown

[Imtootired]

In Melbourne, Aus there are five tower blocks that will be put under complete lockdown for five days. I am all for being proactive about stopping the spread of coronavirus but this is madness. They are public housing so people on very low incomes for various reasons including elderly and disabled people, refugees and single parents. There will be police guarding each floor. No one will be able to leave for any reason. There have been many reports of bad hygiene practices for people quarantined in hotels and it makes me so angry that the government and dodgy contacted companies didn’t do their jobs properly and now the most vulnerable are paying the price. How will they be able to attend to all the individual needs of 3000 people? If I was stuck in a tiny apartment with my children with no time to prepare I would be furious. There were no armed guards for rich travellers returning home. I’m so angry and feel so bad for the residents. This is the beginning of a police state and once it’s happened it could happen again. If I was a resident I would be getting legal advice ASAP. I hope someone takes them to court.

We know that BAME populations are more at risk. We know that COVID is within these tower blocks. Let’s not forget that security guards were presumably rooting willing returned travellers which resulted in the virus spreading throughout this community.

By armed guards, I think you meant police? So what? Allowing untrained ‘security guards’ to try to enforce preventative measures between potentially infected people who should be in quarantine while being accommodated in close proximity is exactly what lead us to this exact situation.

Residents will be paid hardship money, they will be fed. It’s 5 days. What else do you suggest?

This has happened in UAE and Vietnam (but for two weeks or more) Everything the residents need is provided for them.

@user1471481356

I live in Melbourne and I’m glad they’ve done it. If so many thousands of people hadn’t refused to be tested it may not have come to this. The government is providing everything that is needed - food, medical supplies, even craft and toys for every child! They will supplement lost wages etc.

I’m a melbournian but I live abroad. I was go smacked at the levels of test refusal. What is wrong with people?

This virus has virtually shut down many segments of the Australian Economy. For any Australian thinking that these measures are draconian, look at the deaths in UK, France, Spain. That’s is what we are looking at if we don’t implement these measures now.

gob smacked, not go smacked....

Plus there is reportedly A LOT of inner-community meeting up going on in that area, and it is to stop that happening!

Vic recorded 108 cases in one day recently.

I am sure it is scary for them, it was (is) for all of us still... but I will assume that someone in your family contracting C-19 and being very sick, possibly dying will be even more scary. If the gov do nothing, and it becomes more widespread than it is, or more die, then I am sure those in lock down will be very unhappy about that too!

We locked down pretty quick in Sth Aus and currently have 3 cases after a month of none. Those three cases were bought in by people returning.

@EnlightenedOwl

We are sliding into a police state here its terrifying

No. You’re really not. I live in Hong Kong. Have you read the news about what is happening here lately? As in the last week? If not, do some research and then get back to me on your thoughts about Australia sliding into a police state.

Have you SEEN how the Chinese authorities handled the outbreak in Wuhan!!!?

I hope they do this in the UK if needed. Lives are more important than inconveniencing a few people for 5 days.

It's imprisonment without trial. You may think it's justified but it is imprisonment without trial. And yes the authorities will be supplying food and medication. But they do in prison as well and we expect oversight on that.

I much prefer the approach in Canada, which is the idea that if you tell people what they should do, and give them the means to do it, they will mostly do it. Enough to curb this virus. And maintain order while not descending either into anarchy or fascism.

I'm in Melbourne quite near this tower block. I think the government is doing the best it can
It's sending in nurses, interpreters, food, pet food, activity packs for kids. The Red Cross is the single point of contact for all the donations and offers of help coming in. The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre is cooking and delivering meals. All residents get 2 weeks free rent and payment of either $1500 or $750 per household.
They are really trying to do this compassionately and get it right.

Sorry a bit of a cross post with the poster above me. The Aussies are so far removed from a police state it's not funny. Plenty of governments have used a heavy hand, China at the top of the heavy-hand list.

@Guineapigbridge

Have you SEEN how the Chinese authorities handled the outbreak in Wuhan!!!?

Right?? Nailing doors shut, for starters.

@MrsTerryPratchett

It's imprisonment without trial. You may think it's justified but it is imprisonment without trial. And yes the authorities will be supplying food and medication. But they do in prison as well and we expect oversight on that.

I much prefer the approach in Canada, which is the idea that if you tell people what they should do, and give them the means to do it, they will mostly do it. Enough to curb this virus. And maintain order while not descending either into anarchy or fascism.

This ^^

@Imtootired

The virus has spread from people bringing it in from overseas. If quarantine had been handled correctly then it wouldn’t have spread into the community. A security guard allegedly had sex with a quarantined hotel guest. There have also been a lot of reports about bad hygiene practices including not using protective equipment correctly.

In the 108 cases recorded yesterday, only ONE is confirmed as a returning traveler. Who is in quarantine.

@EmMac7

This virus makes us all confront where we stand on the spectrum of individual v community rights.

The U.K.’s lax approach has been very individualist at heart. We have retained much freedom throughout compared to other nations, but paid a hefty price in lives lost.

As an Australian living in the U.K. I’m more comfortable with the approach here in the U.K. It is not in those people’s interests to be locked up like that — its being done to protect the community.

The virus is frightening but a Wuhan style infringement of individual liberty is even scarier to me.

And as a uk person living In Australia I would much rather be here The numbers speak for themselves Kids have Been back as school for over two months If Victoria has acted a bit quicker they wouldn't be in the situation now All other states doing great and even Victoria is lover than the us. We are talking cases not deaths !

Victoria acted faster and more firmly than the other states. For that they have been subjected to a Murdoch LNP sustained campaign to re-open.

@EmMac7 you prefer the way the UK has handled Corona than the way Australia has

Then you're exactly where you should be. I returned to Australia 18 months ago from the UK and I'm so glad I did.

It's a disgrace the way Boris has behaved way back at the start, his colleagues lying and even his own DF being a dick now.

It's a shambles and the UK should be embarrassed. You're up there with the US for incompetent tests running the show.

I agree, MrsTerryPratchett. The approach in Mexico has been very much like Canada in that sense. I do think these draconian measures are a slippery slope.

If Victoria has acted a bit quicker they wouldn't be in the situation now

Quicker than whom? Daniel Andrews was criticised for being hardline about schools, i.e. sticking to his last. The PM tried to undermine his school closures by bribing private schools to open.

The obvious fuck-ups here were the unreliable private security for the quarantine hotels and allowing the BLM march, which gave the signal that it was OK to break SD.

The Ruby Princess fuck-up where 2500 passengers are allowed to walk is now history, because it fizzled out and was just a bunch of old people anyway. Australia was lucky there. Not happening here now, though.

That should be incompetent twats not tests

I'm in Melbourne quite near this tower block. I think the government is doing the best it can. It's sending in nurses, interpreters, food, pet food, activity packs for kids.

Good old Red Cross, I hope they can defuse this. ABC radio this morning interviewed an estate resident, who said that before this sudden lockdown there had been no attempt to advise residents about hygiene and general COVID-ready behaviour. Now there are elderly and disabled people on the upper floors unable to use the lifts (only two lifts for a 20-storey block, and both are locked). The interviewed resident said she'd had no food so ordered in dinner for her family last night, with police permission, but the police then stopped her from collecting it from the delivery person.

The estate also has a lot of newbies from Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia, many of whom don't speak English and are terrified of police.

Melbourne is now Australia's pariah city.

Sweden didn't take these kinds of measures and their rates of Covid were relatively low.

You must have a different idea of what "relatively low" is than I do!

ABC radio this morning interviewed an estate resident, who said that before this sudden lockdown there had been no attempt to advise residents about hygiene and general COVID-ready behaviour

So remind me, how long has COVID been around?

I'm in Aus, but not Melbourne and I think they've done the right thing. We can almost go about daily life although generally more cautious about gatherings and sniffles and more aware of hygiene.
When they went with a looser lockdown of the suburbs in Melbourne at least one person from a hot spot area got a train to Sydney and was only picked up through checking on arrival. Apparently he was displaying symptoms. He did this with the threat of a potential $11k fine and six months jail. So yes I think hard and fast in these particular circumstances is warranted.
My family of four live in a small block of apartments and have been prepared to be locked down throughout this whole thing in case we or anyone in our building gets it. It may be mild for most but the long term damage it can leave healthy people with is something I'd rather not risk given how badly our whole family coped with plain old flu last year.

Differentnameforthis I’m not sure what your point is? Indications are this current outbreak is at least partially the result of a returned traveller/travellers and lax security.

Oh, and OP, I’d love to know how you know returning travellers are rich?