COVID and Australia

[jackspratt]

This is an excellent site if you are looking for Australian statistics broken down by state/age/gender etc etc.

www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-17/coronavi ... a/12060704

Thank goodness for our ABC.

[maaka]

you would have to be Australian to read all those graphs, and colours, and things.

[GT93]

The Aussie PM calls in God for some assistance:

Scott Morrison has offered a prayer for the national cabinet to stay “strong and united” and committed the Australian nation to God during times of “great need and suffering” as it responds to Covid-19.

The prayer is contained in a video, first published by Eternity News but later removed and republished by Queensland Parents for Secular State Schools, in which Morrison explains his faith gives him “enormous encouragement” in how to respond to the crisis.

Morrison, Australia’s first evangelical Christian prime minister, has made no secret of his religious faith, referring to his re-election in 2019 as a “miracle”. Many other former prime ministers, including Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and Kevin Rudd, identify as Christians.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... rus-crisis

Hopefully he isn't in touch with Jerry Falwell who has just reopened Liberty University in the US.

[noosard]

[Whistler]

you would have to be Australian to read all those graphs, and colours, and things.

Commiserations to maaka. On top of the COVIT 19 problems, I understand his local library burnt down last night. All three books were totally destroyed, worst still, one of them had not even had the locals complete the colouring in.

[maaka]

I knew you were Tasmanian..

[GT93]

He might be a Queenslander.

The stats are looking quite good in Oz. One question is how accurate are they? Sweden seems to get quite a bit of attention for its less draconian measures but Australia doesn't. I read just a day or two ago that they were only just starting social distancing in supermarkets in parts (or all?) of Oz.

In NZ a visit to the supermarket is a time of queues, 2 m from anyone else, and high anxiety. You can see the fear in people's faces. I'm not surprised a woman punched a supermarket employee in the face on Saturday.

[noosard]

[noosard]

The country, which has been in lockdown since 25 March, has now recorded 1,039 confirmed cases, with one death. There are 15 people in hospital with Covid-19, including three in intensive care.

The director general of health, Ashley Bloomfield, said 36,209 people had been tested so far, the New Zealand Herald reported. Of the confirmed cases, 45% had a clear international travel link, 36% were contacts of known cases, and 1% were community transmission. The remaining 18% were still being investigated.


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At a briefing on Sunday afternoon, the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, praised those who had complied with the lockdown but said there were “still some people I would charitably describe as idiots”, citing a man in Christchurch who filmed himself coughing on people.

Ardern said no decisions had been made about extending the country’s four-week lockdown, but there were signs that it was having an effect.