Coronavirus

[LeeToRainesToRoach]

What Victoria-NSW border closure means (paywalled)
Adeshola Ore
The Australian
July 6, 2020

The announcement that the Victoria and NSW border will close came as the southern state reported its highest number of new COVID-19 cases in a single day since the pandemic began. On Monday morning, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed his state’s border with NSW would be shut from midnight on Tuesday. It marks the first time in 100 years the border between the two states has been closed.

The decision follows mounting pressure on NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian to close the border over fears the spike in Victoria would travel north. Ms Berejiklian has for months urged all states and territories to open their borders to interstate travel, but said the situation in Victoria required an exceptional response.

Victoria announced a record high 127 new cases of coronavirus and two deaths on Monday, while NSW reported 10 new cases of the virus, all from returned overseas travellers.

How will it work?

The border closure will be enforced by NSW authorities, with the state’s police force patrolling 55 border crossings with Victoria. These include roads, bridges and waterways.

Drones and aerial surveillance will be used to help monitor bush tracks and rivers, while most resources will be used to patrol the four main roads between the states. The Department of Defence are also expected to assist with the operation.

Police will issue fines and penalties for those who breach the border closure or provide false information about needing to travel. Currently, there is a $11,000 fine and up to six months in jail for people who come from COVID high risk areas of Victoria into New South Wales.

NSW Police are also in talks with Health Minister Brad Hazzard to see if bigger fines and jail sentences can be implemented for those coming from the Melbourne hot spots, where community transmission has caused a massive outbreak of the virus.

How long will it last?

Both Daniel Andrews and Gladys Berejiklian have stressed they hope the closure will be in place for the shortest time possible, but no timeline has been given. Travel between the two states will be off the cards for as long as health officials deem necessary.

Who made the decision?

The decision came out of a morning telephone call between Mr Andrews, Ms Berejiklian and Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Are there exemptions?

Yes. There will be a permit system in place for people who live in border communities, such as Albury-Wodonga, to travel cross the border for work and essential services. Essential workers will also be eligible to apply for exemptions.

The application will be provided online via Services NSW from Tuesday.

Other states have included travelling for compassionate grounds as an exemption to be able to cross state lines during a border lockdown.

Ms Berejiklian’s office has confirmed there will be “special conditions” in place for freight operations and other critical services.

NSW residents returning from Victoria will be required to go into a two-week self-isolation period.

Can I go on a pre-planned holiday across the border?

No. Travelling for recreation will not be a permissible reason to cross the border.

 

[LeeToRainesToRoach]

Received an interesting direct message from Lee. Lee, by all means ignore or don't participate on the thread but lay off the personal abuse, especially if you don't have the balls to say it in public.

You have my blessing to publish it if you feel it adds anything.

 

[AngryAnt]

You have my blessing to publish it if you feel it adds anything.

What would it add boyo?

 

[LeeToRainesToRoach]

What would it add boyo?

Nothing, probably. But I don't hide from it.

 

[LeeToRainesToRoach]

Two COVID cases destected on NSW-Victoria border (paywalled)

Two cases of COVID-19 have been detected in the NSW border town of Albury a day before the Victorian border is set to close.

NSW Health officials confirmed the cases in a statement on Monday evening and said one person infected had recently returned from Melbourne.

“Two suspected cases of COVID-19 returned positive results on preliminary testing,” a NSW Health spokesperson said.

“One suspected case had recently travelled to Melbourne and had returned prior to hotspot travel restrictions coming into force”.

The mayors of the border towns of Albury and Wodonga have been left reeling by the decision.

“It is a s**t storm and we are just going to have to manage as best we can,” Albury Mayor Kevin Mack said.

“For this to break down because of the selfish actions of a few people in Melbourne is disgraceful,” Mr Mack said. “It would be nice to have a bit more information about how they think this is going to work.”

“The regions are being held to ransom because of poor decisions made in Melbourne,” he said.

“To be directly impacted because a few people in Melbourne have been selfish is very frustrating. We have absolutely followed the rules and now our economy is being directly impacted because others have not behaved as they should have,” Wodonga Mayor Anna Speedie said.

- - - - -

I don't blame people one bit for being pissed off with Victorians.

 

[MB78]

Received an interesting direct message from Lee. Lee, by all means ignore or don't participate on the thread but lay off the personal abuse, especially if you don't have the balls to say it in public.

The only direct messaging that should go on is meeting up for a beer before or after a game. When it’s back on of course. Sorry to read the above.

 

[AngryAnt]

The only direct messaging that should go on is meeting up for a beer before or after a game. When it’s back on of course. Sorry to read the above.

Waddya gonna do.

 

[MD Jazz]

Can we move this rubbish to the talking politics thread?

You are probably right although plenty of “political” posts after ruby princess debacle in this thread.

Perhaps you could then reiterate your concerns about schools, golf and fishing. And jbhifi and Bunnings stores. And blame open up agitators for our problems. All the while ignoring government fuckups and law breakers. Cool.

 

[MB78]

Waddya gonna do.

I won’t condone it. And I’m hopeful that it will all calm down.

As I have posted here longer enough to know you drove Phantom from this site. I don’t want to see the same to happen with Lee.

 

[LeeToRainesToRoach]

I won’t condone it. And I’m hopeful that it will all calm down.

As I have posted here longer enough to know you drove Phantom from this site. I don’t want to see the same to happen with Lee.

Hahaha, they'll have to boot me. Not enjoying this, but I've never given up in my life.

Happy for someone to start a poll though. I'd abide by the verdict if I've upset enough people to be cast out.

 

[AngryAnt]

I won’t condone it. And I’m hopeful that it will all calm down.

As I have posted here longer enough to know you drove Phantom from this site. I don’t want to see the same to happen with Lee.

No worries. l'll give the thread a break, don't want to cause any more angst.

 

[tigertim]

I can feel a thread lock coming.....

 

[Coburgtiger]

You are probably right although plenty of “political” posts after ruby princess debacle in this thread.

Perhaps you could then reiterate your concerns about schools, golf and fishing. And jbhifi and Bunnings stores. And blame open up agitators for our problems. All the while ignoring government fuckups and law breakers. Cool.

If you have a look at my posting history in this thread, you'll see I've been entirely consistent.

I've only ever said we should be taking more significant precautions. I said when we eased restrictions that we would see an increase in community transmission, which has happened. I've been critical of a federal push to open up, when the state wasn't ready, and look what happened. Documented cases of transmission through large family gatherings.

I've been critical of the state government actions, first in bowing to pressure to open up, then after these ridiculous, ineffective post code restrictions.

I have also, at every opportunity, even said the protests (or any kind of mass gatherings) shouldn't have happened. By the same token, shopping centres shouldn't be operating at full capacity. As it turns out, neither of these have been significant drivers of transmission, mainly because it seems to infect people more readily in more intimate conditions. Bringing up shopping centres points out that there was not a single factor about the protests that was more dangerous than daily shopping conditions. I've said both were a bad idea, but never suggested either have driven community transmission.

The sheer number of school closures we've had in the last week due to infected students and staff shows that schools should not have been opened until we identified all sources of community transmission.

I have been, throughout all of this, saying we are not out of the woods. We needed/need tougher restrictions for longer, because it is literally our only form of defence against a virus we have no other tools to fight.

Hotel quarantine failures have certainly been a significant source of reintroduction of the virus into the community, and eased family and work restrictions have perpetuated that problem. The other issue is that we never had a full picture of the level of virus in the community before we opened up. This caused clusters (like the cedar meats and fawkner McDonalds, or the current brimbank cluster) that we never fully resolved before saying "go have a party with 20 of your closest mates".

This is the whole story. And I've been consistent with this since February.

 

[DavidSSS]

Don't really care if you had "moved on" or whether you feel "trolled" or not, you keep posting personal opinion that runs against any evidence. People will respond to your posts, if you don't want that, don't post.

This

You've provided no evidence that the BLM protests caused any spike in infection. Feel free to point out where I might have missed this.

Your continual name-calling is tiresome. I attack arguments, not individuals and suggest you do the same. It's pretty simple.

And This

L2R2R, you make numerous groundless assertions and then wet your pants when someone pulls you up on it.

Suck it up or start doing some research and back up your claims.

DS

 

[22nd Man]

I thought all schools have been on holidays so they are already closed aren't they?
If a kid under 18 tests postive why is that attributed to having caught it at school? Assume kid stays away for two weeks and his classmates maybe until tested? Though there is a Middle eastern College that seems to have a lot of students ....family cluster or caught in the classroom 10dsys ago before term ended?

 

[DavidSSS]

If you have a look at my posting history in this thread, you'll see I've been entirely consistent.

I've only ever said we should be taking more significant precautions. I said when we eased restrictions that we would see an increase in community transmission, which has happened. I've been critical of a federal push to open up, when the state wasn't ready, and look what happened. Documented cases of transmission through large family gatherings.

I've been critical of the state government actions, first in bowing to pressure to open up, then after these ridiculous, ineffective post code restrictions.

I have also, at every opportunity, even said the protests (or any kind of mass gatherings) shouldn't have happened. By the same token, shopping centres shouldn't be operating at full capacity. As it turns out, neither of these have been significant drivers of transmission, mainly because it seems to infect people more readily in more intimate conditions. Bringing up shopping centres points out that there was not a single factor about the protests that was more dangerous than daily shopping conditions. I've said both were a bad idea, but never suggested either have driven community transmission.

The sheer number of school closures we've had in the last week due to infected students and staff shows that schools should not have been opened until we identified all sources of community transmission.

I have been, throughout all of this, saying we are not out of the woods. We needed/need tougher restrictions for longer, because it is literally our only form of defence against a virus we have no other tools to fight.

Hotel quarantine failures have certainly been a significant source of reintroduction of the virus into the community, and eased family and work restrictions have perpetuated that problem. The other issue is that we never had a full picture of the level of virus in the community before we opened up. This caused clusters (like the cedar meats and fawkner McDonalds, or the current brimbank cluster) that we never fully resolved before saying "go have a party with 20 of your closest mates".

This is the whole story. And I've been consistent with this since February.

I may not agree with everything you say but here is an example of a sustained argument with explanation and real data to back it up.

It is an opinion which invites serious consideration.

But I do agree we opened up too early. I really don't like working from home, no separation between my work and my home life, but I have been doing it since March because I know it is the right thing to do. I have also been discussing whether people return to work with my colleagues, and have been advocating for others who's work needs face to face engagement more than my work, to go back first.

DS

 

[22nd Man]

My big query is what "identified in routine testing" tells us? Ii is distinct from the sources category like xyz cluster or hotels. Same with daily under investigation they never say the next day what they found out, just announce the latest number of under investigations.

 

[Tigers of Old]

You need to post this stuff in the Murdocracy thread Lee.

 

[MD Jazz]

If you have a look at my posting history in this thread, you'll see I've been entirely consistent.

I've only ever said we should be taking more significant precautions. I said when we eased restrictions that we would see an increase in community transmission, which has happened. I've been critical of a federal push to open up, when the state wasn't ready, and look what happened. Documented cases of transmission through large family gatherings.

I've been critical of the state government actions, first in bowing to pressure to open up, then after these ridiculous, ineffective post code restrictions.

I have also, at every opportunity, even said the protests (or any kind of mass gatherings) shouldn't have happened. By the same token, shopping centres shouldn't be operating at full capacity. As it turns out, neither of these have been significant drivers of transmission, mainly because it seems to infect people more readily in more intimate conditions. Bringing up shopping centres points out that there was not a single factor about the protests that was more dangerous than daily shopping conditions. I've said both were a bad idea, but never suggested either have driven community transmission.

The sheer number of school closures we've had in the last week due to infected students and staff shows that schools should not have been opened until we identified all sources of community transmission.

I have been, throughout all of this, saying we are not out of the woods. We needed/need tougher restrictions for longer, because it is literally our only form of defence against a virus we have no other tools to fight.

Hotel quarantine failures have certainly been a significant source of reintroduction of the virus into the community, and eased family and work restrictions have perpetuated that problem. The other issue is that we never had a full picture of the level of virus in the community before we opened up. This caused clusters (like the cedar meats and fawkner McDonalds, or the current brimbank cluster) that we never fully resolved before saying "go have a party with 20 of your closest mates".

This is the whole story. And I've been consistent with this since February.

Unfortunately none of that reconciles with the experience across the rest of the country.

No issues with community transmission. No issues with schools. No issues with shopping centres. No issues with protests.

Our problems are purely down to govt stuffups. Trying to explain it any other way ignores overwhelming evidence from the rest of the country. From you As a science teacher it is disingenuous.

Can you please point out the multitude of cases of in school transmissions? Anywhere in the country? You understand that’s a hell of a lot of people getting together every day for weeks without any transmission? If it was so dangerous why aren’t we seeing large numbers of infected school children?

Please explain why all health officers around the country are saying it’s safe to be in school?

 

[LeeToRainesToRoach]

You need to post this stuff in the Murdocracy thread Lee.

Had a quick peek when it first bobbed up but it looked like a safe space circlejerk.