@chameleon54 wrote:
@domino-710 wrote:
And - here we go - SA.
Let's see how Steve handles it.
There's no doubt that containing the virus in Victoria was always going to be much harder than in South Australia, regardless of who was in charge.
Reasons include, Melbourne airport being an international gateway to Australia, much higher migrant populations in Victoria who may not always be proficient in speaking and reading English ( and may not trust government officials and health advice to the same extent as those born here. ) Melbourne ports are also a major freight gateway and the major transport and manufacturing distribution centres have people coming and going from all areas in the country with inherent poor monitoring of driver health status.
That said though, at this stage, the South Australian government appears to have handled virus control much more efficiently than the Andrews government.
Examples include going earlier than other states on closing borders, much higher testing rates per head of population early in the pandemic, much more effort and efficiency put into contact tracing and more targeted and controlled isolation measures. Monitoring duties have also only been handled by the police or the ADF, rather than private contractors..
One of my young nieces returned to SA from Victoria just over two weeks ago. She was totally confined, alone to the house she was isolating in for the whole two weeks. And she had tested negative to COVID. She was also checked on numerous occasions with police visiting her every couple of days.
This is in stark contrast to Victorians who had TESTED POSITIVE to the virus and where still ( until a day or two ago ) allowed to wander the streets whenever they felt like it for " exercise ". Many positive cases had no communication from contact tracers and 25% of positive cases where not home when visited by police. That simply wouldn't have happened in S.A.
I,ve been very careful not to take a dig at any Victorians for the unfortunate position they find themselves in. It really is a tragic set of circumstances not of the making of most responsible Victorians. Likewise, all governments are just making it up as they go along and trying to do their very best in what must feel a terrible responsibility.
But there does need to be some real questioning and honesty about how the Victorian leadership have managed the crisis if everyone is going to learn and handle things better in future. A flare up in cases could occur anywhere, any time. We never know when the next positive case could be us or our loved ones. Stay safe everyone.
While Daniel Andrews sends mixed messages about wanting to be very careful not to blame or criticise anyone for not self-isolating when they're told to, people are going to think it's no big deal if they don't do it.
What's NOT to blame? What's NOT to criticise about their actions??? To say, "Oh, we're sorry you did the wrong thing but we won't criticise or blame you for it" is absolutely ludicrous!
Anyone who is positive and doesn't stay home is holding the whole country to ransom, in that they're most likely spreading the disease and causing businesses to shut down, not to mention risking giving the virus to others who will die from it or end up with long term illnesses.
It's no different to someone who decides to risk driving when they've been drinking - they know it's illegal, they know there's a hefty penalty, they know there's a good chance someone could die because of what they're doing but they go ahead anyway.
It's actually a lot worse than drink driving - it's like they cause everyone else they come in contact with to drink drive as well so that it's not safe for anyone else to be out at all.
The majority of people are paying the price for the actions of a few incredibly selfish people (who possibly don't care about the fines because they think they'll never be made to pay them). I think they should throw them in a jail celll (on their own), give them 2 weeks worth of food and water, and say, "see you in 2 weeks time". It might sound barbaric but it's not as barbaric as what they're doing. I know they don't want to put people in jail because those who administer it would come in contact with them, but if they only see them when they first put them in it'd limit their exposure. The other alternative would be a hefty jail term after they're no longer positive (when things have quietened down a bit).
Fines just don't seem to be working, probably because people who don't own anything say you can't get blood out of a stone. I was in hospital years ago and the couple in the bed next door to me (well, he was almost in there with her - even the nurses were too embarrassed to come into the room!) rang for an ambulance to take them home. They lived 80 kms away and they didn't care about the cost. He blatantly said they had no intention of paying because you can't get blood out of a stone. I was really tempted to tell the ambulance men that when they arrived but I didn't, partly because I wanted them gone and partly because I had no way to say anything without them knowing it was me in case he retaliated.
