Australia battles several clusters in new pandemic phase

The madness continues. This is actually the first signs I have sen of authorities recognising all this for what it is and thinking clearly about how the future might look.

Living normally, with Covid-19: Task force ministers on how S'pore is drawing road map for new normal, Opinion News & Top Stories - The Straits Times

Proves what common sense has told us since Covid arrived....you can never, ever totally eliminate viruses. Attempting to do so will lead Australia to permanent isolation, on again off again on again lock downs and ongoing negative social and economic effects. Better to open the country up while putting in place strong protections for the elderly and vulnerable.

you're in the same boat as Japan.

And not only that.

The vaccine roll out program of Japan looks much better that the roll out program from Australia.

Australia's just a petri dish for how much snap disruption the population will put up with before a significant number start fighting back. So far, the general tolerance for BS is pretty high, save for a few anti-lockdown protests here and there that the media actively ignores. The QLD premier jumps the queue to get her Pfizer jab so she can head to Tokyo to lobby for an Olympics nobody wants. The Vic chief health officer breaks his own rule to jet off to Canberra for an awards ceremony, claiming it's "important for business."

Face it Australia, you're being gamed based on a handful of "cases." This is the Orwellian "new normal" you were promised. Get used to loving your captors.

Attempting to do so will lead Australia to permanent isolation, on again off again on again lock downs and ongoing negative social and economic effects.

Heh, Australia has been walking around without masks as if there is no pandemic for months. Aussies don't mind sucking it up a bit for the greater good.

And negative economic effects? Umm...

Shut off from the world, Australia fosters red-hot growth at home

Far from last year's dire predictions, Australia's unemployment rate has slid to a pre-pandemic level of 5.1%, home building approvals are at a record high and consumer spending is euphoric.

The A$2 trillion ($1.5 trillion) economy is now larger than before the once-in-a-century pandemic hit its shores. Sporting events are again a major spectacle and pubs overflow with patrons. In many states and territories, masks are an uncommon sight.

If anything, the very constraints that were expected to hurt demand, such as closed international borders and limited domestic mobility, have serendipitously channelled new sources of growth.

Instead of traveling to Bali or Bangkok, Australians are holidaying locally. Working from home requirements have prompted many to base themselves in new residences outside major cities, propping up demand in smaller towns. Physical distancing rules have spurred online retail sales while dining out has never been this popular.

https://japantoday.com/category/business/analysis-shut-off-from-the-world-australia-fosters-red-hot-growth-at-home

The Queensland government has called on the federal government to tighten already tough border restrictions to reduce the number of travelers arriving in Australia.

yep I agree, keep us vaxed aussies out, I know I must be a diseased carrying parisites.

Lockdowns were very effective in buying time for Australia, so it is understandable that it is still a prime weapon against the pandemic. Still, if vaccination efforts were to be upgraded, also the effects of non-pharmacological interventions increases their efficacy.

Lockdowns work! They are only a few weeks of inconvenience. The government is supporting small businesses and those who become unemployed during the lockdowns. This round of virus outbreak will be quickly stopped and life will return to normal within a couple of weeks.

They need to devote more time and personnel on vaccinating.

I keep hearing a pattern here, countries that have "been relatively successful in containing the pandemic" and fail to vaccinate people on time.

Luddite - They need to devote more time and personnel on vaccinating

Vaccines can be had at nearly any medical clinic across the country. I’ve had my first shot. It’s not the government that has been slow to release them. It is the people who have been slow to get them due to Australia having very few cases of Covid in the last 4-5 months. It’s also because many people have suffered side effects from the vaccines that make others hesitant.

I should also add that, all these lockdowns and restrictions are for less than one-hundred cases nationally. Tokyo has 300-500 new cases every day and has done for months with very little done about it.

Why do so many countires have drive thru testing but rumor has it in Japan you can't even get a test if you tried....

I think Australia has done a great job and they have shown a lot of patience. I think one thing that may make it easier to lockdown there than in Japan is that Australians have nice big homes with yards so staying home is rather comfortable. In Japan a lockdown would mean living in a kind of prison cell considering small houses and apartment sizes with almost no yards to speak of.

When I lived there in 2017 I had a 3000sq ft house in the City. I purchased 3 lots in 2015, tore down the houses and made one big one house. Neighbors hated that I had such a nice house and a big front and back yard.

@ reckless

Not everyone in Aus lives in houses with big front and backyards. Many people live in apartments / flats which are not often all that spacious. Lockdowns have undoubtedly been hard for those people.

@ do the hustle

Yes, from I know the uptake by the population of vaccinations has been the problem. Because of the relative success of lockdowns, I feel that many Australians became complacent. I believe they felt that they were somehow immune, and then when the doors started opening to overseas, these spikes occurred.

Some major rethinking will have to be done, and more people will have to become vaccinated.

Driver works in tourism dept/airport. Does not wear mask. Is not vaccinated. Now is infected with delta strain and fun part is he meet new faces everyday/every hour. See it takes just one person... just one person to bring it back to square one and Covid fight continues...

Well I know lockdown is disappointing, but come on...

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/australianz/oh-deer-nude-sunbathers-who-fled-animal-fined-for-coronavirus-lockdown-breach

Vaccines can be had at nearly any medical clinic across the country. I’ve had my first shot. It’s not the government that has been slow to release them. It is the people who have been slow to get them due to Australia having very few cases of Covid in the last 4-5 months. It’s also because many people have suffered side effects from the vaccines that make others hesitant.

I'm not so sure about this, I'm only just outside the cohort by a few months (39) and as a result, have an indefinite wait.

suspected to have been infected while transporting a foreign air crew from Sydney Airport

Exactly that… It makes no sense to install strict measures and harsh restrictions in the country and keep it wide open to the whole infected planet at the same time. Admitted, that’s not specific to Australia, because almost all countries act to that strange ‘logic’, only leading to the next waves and higher infection numbers as well to new and more dangerous variants.

After all the Lockdowns and arrests of grandmothers walking in the park you're in the same boat as Japan.

How are they ? they know the extend of the spread and can easily bring it under control.

While here if you get infected you will be on your own as you won't meet the stringent and

ambiquous condition for a free test and when you end up paying for one you won't feature

in the count. Even in Isreal with the highest vaccination rate in the world the infection rate

is on the rise again due to the delta variant. It would be utter naivety to think that Tokyo has

only three hundred and something cases with the delta variant already here and zero mitigation

measures, even the delta plus variant has been detected here.

The bus driver that is the super spreader in Australia infected a woman he bypassed in a shopping

mall that is how infectious the delta variant is. Maybe Japan has but the Beruta variant which is

completely different from the delta variant just like baseball and yakyu are different.

Most countries have worked out this isnt ebola and with mass vaccinations its just another type of flu.

Australia and new Zealand still think that it's the plague.

Probably because most of the world has lived with it for over a year while they have been in hiding at the bottom of the world

I hope this will finally stop people pointing to Australia as an example to follow with regards to their draconian lockdowns.

“Look at Australia” should no longer pull the same weight it used to, hopefully!

**Insanity* : Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.*

A vaccination takes as long to do as a test. Why not devote those testing resources to vaccinating people?

You cannot hide from Covid. It's a pandemic. The solution is to vaccinate, or you will be isolated long term and subject to persistent lockdowns. There has been time to vaccinate all of Australia's vulnerable citizens. Once that is done, it's less of a problem. Once the vaccinations hit about 75% of adults, evidence from Brazil suggests that the chain of infection starts to break down.

Wimbledon was packed to the rafters today (with the roof on) with hardly any masks. All the vulnerable that can be vaccinated have been jabbed. If the vaccines work as research suggests, it will now operate like flu.

Europe is moving on to the next stage. Australia needs to vaccinate like crazy or it will be left behind. Japan has finally managed to ramp up its vaccinations.

Some countries have endemic Hep. A. They have never been shut off from the rest of the world and neither have their citizens. Visitors to such countries get a jab. We need to move out of panic mode. It's not the first virus humanity has encountered and it won't be the last. Get a jab and get on with life.

-Shut off from the world, Australia fosters red-hot growth at home.

Excluding the tourist sector or any other that has seen their jobs, companies and careers hammered.

And what about the 30% of Aussies who have relatives abroad that they are banned from visiting?

Orwellian imprisonment is not the 'new normal'. Covid is just another blip in a long saga. Plague outbreaks. Typhoid. 1918 Flu. HIV. SARS. Ebola. Stuff like this comes, it's nasty, we deal with it, we get on with life.

The news media love to overdramatise things, but we need to get a bit more perspective on a virus that the vaccines are demoting from a killer to flu.

Lose the Mad Max mindset and just get a jab like the rest of the world.

Fewer cases, fewer deaths and a better economy? Sign me up.

I think, at this stage, it is a bit of overreaction. Wouldn’t it be enough to vaccinate a vulnerable part of population (10%-15%) and then just relax? Why need to reach herd immunity with experimental vaccines which are approved only for emergency use? For example, UK has about 50% fully vaccinated people and covered all the vulnerable groups long time ago. And we can see that rising number of cases seems have no impact on number of deaths.

**Insanity : Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

why would they want or expect different results when doing the same thing over and over again has given them exactly the results intended? Insanity would be to do it differently and expect the same.