Austalian state likely can't contain Delta, will let it rip

[starfro]

www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-07/nsw-delta-variant-may-never-be-controlled/100273956

Be thankful that here most vulnerable people are double jabbed, whereas over there it's far, far fewer.

Delta cannot be contained, it's too transmissible.

@milkyaqua Yes, it must be a shock seeing a country take a pandemic seriously.

What kind of a ridiculous comment is this?!!! Nope we didn’t take Covid seriously at all in the U.K. @milkyaqua. Not at all. And now we are looking at Australia in awe thinking wow - they are actually taking it seriously. Wow maybe we should have done that too. It’s pretty insulting actually.

callinda - is the 80% an ‘official’ aim to drop most international travel restrictions? And the 70% to end the state lockdown? I only ask because it seems like it will be a very tall order, even with high uptake. Are under 18s eligible for the vaccine?

It will be interesting to see if and how states will use testing post-lockdown.

I live in Germany, a country governed in a similar way with a federal government and state governments that are responsible for health directives. We encountered similar issues concerning the lack of overall country-wide consensus regarding lockdown regulations, but these were ironed out (plus Merkel put her foot down at one point and started taking back some controls).

The approach here was tests, tests and more tests. Test centres, mobile test units, tests from a man on a bike, you name it... Tests became mandatory in secondary school (3 times a week, supervised by the class teacher at the beginning of the day). You also needed to show a negative test to enter restaurants, non-essential shops and other non-essential public places. Large settings (such as swimming pools etc) still require either a vaccine certificate or negative test for anyone 12 and over.

The other strict mandate was, and still is here in Bavaria, though other states are loosening up, FFP2 masks in any indoor setting, including in secondary schools. Numbers have been low for a while now, but it was only in the past month that my DS remove his mask during lessons. They still have to wear them when moving around the school, and have been asked to wear them fully for the first 2 weeks of term in September to catch any post-holiday cases. Testing will also still continue.

This strategy seems to have worked. Germany has very low numbers compared to many of its neighbours, yet has open borders with the usual restrictions on entrants from high-risk countries.

@milkyaqua

Yes, it must be a shock seeing a country take a pandemic seriously.

Yes you’re he most serious at it.

@Ozgirl75

I’ve got to say, I am tempted to send my kids back to school a couple of days a week. Husband and I are both vaccinated and my oldest child is 10, so not going to get vaccinated any time soon anyway.

Ozgirl do you have a choice? How does it work

@IndigoC

Why do the Australian states all hold these daily Covid press conferences? Is it because Dan Andrews set a weird precedent last year? Here in the U.K. we only had them every few days, maybe even weekly, when things were bad. And when they were bad here they we were in far worse crisis than any Australian state has yet approached.

Feels like it’s OTT and likely to whip up fear. Shouldn’t they just release the numbers and only give a PC when there is something significant to say?

England has them daily and then not day.

Wales had them daily. Not sure when it stopped.

Scotland had them daily for a very very long time - she does like to lecture!

Not sure about NI.

I don’t know, I don’t live in Scotland.

So why did you comment for the whole of the UK then?

@IndigoC

And the U.K. endured the longest, strictest lockdown in the world so you can bugger off with the nasty jibes.

It may have been a long lockdown but it certainly wasn't the strictest. In Spain weren't many adults and children confined to their apartments for several months and not allowed out at all except for food and medical assistance?

We did have conferences daily for a while in England

If people o/s think the on going and long response wasn’t serious or taken seriously here they are low on awareness.

If people o/s think the on going and long response wasn’t serious or taken seriously here they are low on awareness.

I do think it's laughable when people who clearly know f all about the UK comment a lot about how shit the UK has been. But if someone equally unknowledgabele about Austrailia comments- well that's not OK!

PS not you

I don’t think having very strict lockdowns is anything to boast about anyway
Most of it is theatre and completely unnecessary. Covid spreads within households, within workplaces.
It doesn’t seem to spread on beaches, even on protests that much.
Wales and Scotland had stricter lockdowns than England at various points. Ultimately it didn’t matter. Wales is doing the best now out of the four nations but that is not because they had a longer lockdown. It’s because they have the best vaccination rates. Nearly 80% double jabbed I heard yesterday which is amazing. I doubt England can get that high.

Re. Testing. I think that is a solution for Australia too. They need to look at how the U.K. and Europe are doing this.
It’s part of the solution.
We’re off to my mother in law for her birthday today. We’re all going to do an lft before we go.
Although don’t get me started on the plastic waste created. That is hugely depressing.

Agree Wakeup

True re stricter not always the right way to go. Spain keeping children home was not great for anyone and wouldn’t have brought much benefit to numbers.

Ozgirl just saw your response re school to pp. I see

I find it worrying that lockdown isn’t working with the delta variant. All of the lockdowns in the U.K. dramatically brought down cases, but these were with the original and then alpha strains.

The U.K. has lived with delta since April I think? And we’ve more or less been out of strict lockdown for all of it. Schools in England went back in March and didn’t close even with delta circulating. We did have bubbles though and kids sent home but never full closure and many schools have operated fairly normally. My kids school has. Sports day, end of year show, school trips all the usual stuff.
Pubs / restaurants etc opened with the social distancing in May I think. Again with delta circulating. And now we’re fully opened with festivals, theatres etc , still with delta and cases are still falling.
So vaccines are working here in the U.K. and hopefully evidence from here can help guide the response in Australia.

Most of it is theatre and completely unnecessary. Covid spreads within households, within workplaces.

FFS 🤦

If people aren't going to other people's homes, or to work or to school, how is it being spread?? THAT'S the point of a lockdown.

And the UK did not have the strictest lockdown in the world 🙄

@BootsScootsAndToots

Most of it is theatre and completely unnecessary. Covid spreads within households, within workplaces.

FFS 🤦

If people aren't going to other people's homes, or to work or to school, how is it being spread?? THAT'S the point of a lockdown.

And the UK did not have the strictest lockdown in the world 🙄

No it didn’t thank god as we had many days of it.

We had two terms home from school so yes we know about that

No lockdown on earth can stop household spread or spread within essential workplaces though. This spread will happen regardless of curfews and 5k restrictions and one hour per day exercising in the park.
It might be best to just accept low spread anyway to keep as much as possible functioning. It all helps with building community resilience and immunity.
Vaccine immunity better but I am convinced from anecdotal evidence of my own eyes that immunity is also acquired from catching and recovering Covid too.

Thanks @ozgirl75 I had got the (mistaken) impression they were completely closed.

I absolutely would agree with you too. It's always a strange compromise between protecting society (whatever that means at the time) personal situation. Hardly anyone local to me sent kids on our first long lockdown but there was no vaccine then. Once vaccinated its a trickier call isnt it. Completely separate discussion though. Thanks for your answer.

@BootsScootsAndToots

Most of it is theatre and completely unnecessary. Covid spreads within households, within workplaces.

FFS 🤦

If people aren't going to other people's homes, or to work or to school, how is it being spread?? THAT'S the point of a lockdown.

And the UK did not have the strictest lockdown in the world 🙄

It’s spread within households. Within families, houses of multiple occupation. One person goes to work brings it back. Within households that are not privileged enough to work from home.

@newstart1234

callinda - is the 80% an ‘official’ aim to drop most international travel restrictions? And the 70% to end the state lockdown? I only ask because it seems like it will be a very tall order, even with high uptake. Are under 18s eligible for the vaccine?

There's an official 4 stage plan. State lockdowns don't depend on the % vaccinated - it's to do with case numbers at the moment. % are of eligible population.

Phase A - that's now - vaccinate as quickly as possible, short sharp local lockdowns to suppress community transmission including internal border closures as necessary, strict international travel restrictions

Phase B - 70% vaccinated - looser international travel rules for the vaccinated, increased caps for unvaccinated, lockdowns less likely and based on hospitalisations rather than case numbers

Phase C - 80% vaccinated - lift international travel restrictions for vaccinated Australians, loosening quarantine requirements, virtual end to lockdowns

Phase D - back to normal

www.google.com.au/amp/s/amp.abc.net.au/article/100339314

Callinda that seems a reasonable plan. Unfortunately I think NSW at least will be in lockdown until Phase A is completed. That will be tough. But it will save lives. The problem is when people get really fed up with it and start breaking the rules but percentage vaccinated is still too low

Victoria - who knows! I suspect if they are not in a long lockdown then they could be in one every other week, which might actually be more counter productive than the NSW lockdown.

It's a hard road ahead, but the decisions made so far has meant you have been saved the worst of the deaths and hospitalizations.

I hope the vaccinations really start making a difference soon, although I am a bit concerned with the priority list. In Italy we saw that vaccinating teachers early was a disaster and lots died. I hope that enough vulnerable people are vaccinated in Austrailia.

I don't think all of NSW is in lockdown though?

@sashagabadon

The U.K. has lived with delta since April I think? And we’ve more or less been out of strict lockdown for all of it. Schools in England went back in March and didn’t close even with delta circulating. We did have bubbles though and kids sent home but never full closure and many schools have operated fairly normally. My kids school has. Sports day, end of year show, school trips all the usual stuff. Pubs / restaurants etc opened with the social distancing in May I think. Again with delta circulating. And now we’re fully opened with festivals, theatres etc , still with delta and cases are still falling. So vaccines are working here in the U.K. and hopefully evidence from here can help guide the response in Australia.

Thanks Sasha, that all sounds really positive