by Paphitis » Mon Mar 16, 2020 2:40 am
The country to watch is Australia.
I say that because it appears they have introduced the biggest program of testing.
25000 people have been tested in NSW alone. I’m currently traveling in Australia atm. I’m on my way to Melbourne today. I’m also due to travel to the US late April.
Something like 5000 testing centers have been opened. You need a Doctor’s slip to get tested atm.
The entire response is being headed by the Security Cabinet.
The Government has not released data on how many people have been tested. There are now 300 known cases which is pretty low by international standards.
But let’s say they have tested 100000 people, then the incidence is 0.3%.
If that incidence rate holds true then there could be 100,000 contaminated people in Australia.
The Federal Government has just made it mandatory for self isolation if you have travelled from overseas. If anyone is caught violating this law, they are committing an offence. I am not sure what the penalty is.
It also looks like they are headed towards closing their borders to France, and Spain and they might even extend that to the entire European continent.
The are preparing for worst case scenarios and they said that this worst case is 4 million cases and 100,000 dead. These figures from Australian Government officials,
The entire handling of the emergency seems to be extremely transparent here with most Australians feeling confident with the response and showing high levels of confidants.
All sporting events and public gatherings over 500 people outdoors and 100 people indoors has been prohibited.
Access to the elderly has been restricted in retirement villages and nursing homes.
Grand Prix has been cancelled.
They also anticipating at the worst case scenario 250000 new single day cases at the leak within the next 6 months and at the best case scenario 100,000 new single day cases.
They fear this will inundate the health system and break it.
As a result, there are now commercials on tv telling people to “socially isolate”, which means do not stand within 1.5 meters of other people, do not hug, kiss, shake hands, and to regularly wash hands.
Flights to and from Europe could be cancelled within days. USA, Canada, NZ travel will continue in the near term.
They issuing complete travel warnings to every other country.