Amazulu

in WA and SA, Chinese 19 infection numbers per day have been fairly consistently low (and in the case of WA, apart from death ship numbers, f**king low) - lock-down or no lock-down. I have no problem with restrictions, especially now that we have a hard border closure but the government also needs to be aware that if these numbers stay low for, say, the next two weeks, then they can start looking at slowly easing off. As long as they are agile and flexible - unlike Premier Xi in Vic - then this could work

Dorothy

Unless you're trying to emulate that clown in Washington, please stop with the blatantly racist habit of calling it "Chinese 19".

GarryP

I end up at about 92 new cases today, 1.52% growth.

Numbers over the weekend will get skewed by reporting, but my guess is they will have to relax some regulations by the end of next week if they don't have a good eradication story to tell.

Beoz

Nah. They won't change anything while schools are off. Too many parents, teachers, teenagers and staff associated with schools will be tempted to do stupid things while on holiday.

carcajou

"Stupid things while on holiday" - Nat Fyfe was photographed surfing at Margaret River today - he lives in Perth and is from Lake Grace (Wheatbelt). We have regional lockdown here so this was a big no-no and exactly the sort of thing the Government is trying to stop this long weekend. Pissed off locals saw him and dobbed him in. He's trying to say he was just doing an errand for his father's trucking business and just went for a surf to exercise. He was with at least one mate and not social distancing. We'll see. Police will need to make an example - can't have flash footy stars openly flouting the spirit of the law.

Amazulu

WTF?

Spanish flu
Asian Flu
German Measles
Hong Kong flu
etc
It is universally accepted that this virus originated in the city of Wuhan, which is on the banks of the Yangtze River. Now my geography is not that great (definitely not my strongest subject at school) but I think you will find that this place is in Central-Eastern CHINA. I'm definitely having a dig at the pathetic and backward Chinese government because their f**kups and lies have led directly to the situation that the world is in today, but I am in no way shape or form being racist. I have posted within the rules of BE. Get over yourself darling - you may think you're BE's content cop but you blatantly ain't

There may indeed be a clown in Washington but the corrupt Beta-male Soy Boi in Ottawa is a bigger clown!!

Beoz

Doing an errand for a trucking business = work
Surfing = exercising
One mate = allowed.

Not sure the police will get away with that one.

Sprit of the time we live in. Agree

Spirit of the law. Nah he's fine.

carcajou

Fyfe says he was in Margaret River picking up a shipment of lime.

Not unheard of for lime to be trucked into the Wheatbelt. It can be used on farms, but it's use is seen as somewhat boutique and uncommon. Service Clubs in the Wheatbelt sometimes raffle off lime for their fundraisers. The roads connecting Lake Grace and Margaret River are lightly trafficked back roads, that do not pass through even one substantial population centre until you are already deep inside the South West - I would be very surprised if those roads were manned by police even with regional lockdown.

The question of course is, was he actually there for that, was he "there for that" but milked it into a holiday, etc. He certainly thought about it well enough in advance to bring his board and his wet suit, not really things people ordinarily keep laying around in the back seat.

carcajou

Should be easy enough for police to prove or not. Lime has very specific uses. Should be quite simple to prove the shipment existed from the depot, and prove and verify the farmer it was going to and the purpose, and the delivery times etc. He'd be allowed to go pick it up for work and with the distance between Lake Grace and Margaret River - spend one night there and come back the next day. He'll be in trouble if he milked it into a long weekend or turn it into a working holiday.

Amazulu

I also don't see a problem with this. Surfing with a mate on a quiet beach - where's the issue? Just goes to show, that when they're allowed to be, a lot of people turn into busy body jobsworths - encouraged and egged on by a ready and willing media and authorities

carcajou

I do see a problem with it. One of the main reasons we have regional lockdown in the first place, was precisely for this reason - to stop Perth residents and others from doing the time-honoured tradition of packing the South West's beaches at Easter and potentially fueling an outbreak in the regions. The Busselton/Margaret River region is particularly vulnerable, does have confirmed cases and has been proactive in asking tourists to leave.

Fyfe isn't from the South West - he was allowed in for an essential reason - he needs to do that essential job and then leave. Surfing with a mate is not essential and he was not allowed in to do that.

Fyfe is a public figure and if he's at the beaches, others are going to say what's the big deal, we'll go on our holiday too. The investigation will also reveal Fyfe's principle address - the one he is now supposed to be at - is it his house in Perth, or was he living with his parents in Lake Grace? People are not allowed to shuttle between houses in Western Australia right now, even if they are the owner. If he was coming and going from Perth to Lake Grace as he pleased, when others are now required by law to be separated from family if they're in different regions, he'll be in trouble for violating the lockdown. If he decided before the lockdown came into effect that he would rather be with his parents in Lake Grace, packed up and headed down - fine. But not if he was going back and forth and the investigation will be looking at that too.

At minimum, piss poor leadership by a public person - at worse, a criminal offence.

Beoz

Providing the 3 items stack up. No problem

It's like the pollie in NSW who went to his second home 3 weeks ago before they said you couldn't do that. They've given him a $1000 fine. If he indeed moved there 3 weeks ago I can't see the problem.

Beoz

He has been cleared.

Beoz

More to the point on this, has the Chinese government apologised yet? Have they made an effort to shut down live animal trade for good (I believe there a temporary ban)?

The world needs to make China accountable, they certainly won't do it on their own. It's not the Chinese way.

They also need to stop live animal trading. It won't happen. It's a $76 billion industry.

While we pussy foot around the Chinese issue, SARS, COVID19, will continue to plague the world after this episode.

GarryP

You don't need to play a racism card, just realise that half the world's population lives inside that circle. Numbers and density are all you need to make it the epicentre of most new diseases.