Beoz

Game over pussy footing around pulling out the racism card.

If other countries in that region need the wake up call so be it.

Name, shame and stop.

scrubbedexpat098

They've stuck me in maintenance until the next construction work comes up. I haven't done maintenance for years, I'd forgotten just how cruisy it could be. Covid 19 is obviously dominating the way we're living on camp, no shortage of sanitizing gel here. 2 things that irk me though are the use of plastic plates and cutlery (there's no need imo that normal stuff can't be used, as long as dirty plates are handled correctly, this is an environmental nightmare at the moment). Also, we're not allowed into Newman to prevent interaction with the locals but the camp shop hasn't stocked up, I've been without toothpaste for 3 days til this morning when our supply package arrived. 5 weeks since I've seen my wife in person, but she understands why I opted for an extended stint here. Stay safe everyone, don't be a Dick this weekend

Beoz

Sorry I don't know this part of the world but is locking you in camp really necassary without being about to visit the local town? Serious question? I have no idea what the incoming and outgoing of your camp are and what the risks are. Given WA is in border blocked the risks seem extremely low to me. Maybe I am wrong.

spouse of scouse

Gawd, you may as well be on the moon You stay safe too Steve and I'm glad you got your toothpaste.

spouse of scouse

It's only a guess and I'm sure Steve will be along to answer your question, but as the workers have been locked down for more than 14 days it's probably more a case of protecting them from being exposed to the virus in town, low as that risk is. Will be interesting to see what Steve says.

Amazulu

I think it's more to do with keeping the large local Aboriginal community virus-free - and given the endemic chronic illnesses in that group, a wise move

carcajou

Newman has a high Aboriginal population, and there is significant concern that the diverse array of FIFO workers coming in from all over Australia - the border is not closed to essential workers, and FIFO miners are essential workers - may bring it in from the Eastern States or Perth and spread it in places like Newman, and from there it gets taken to Aboriginal communities which have poor medical facilities. The WA Government has said that Aboriginals aged 50 or over are "at risk" and should have work-at-home arrangements. There is significant angst right now about the Kimberley (the region north of stevenglish1) because the percentage of Aboriginals is even higher there, and there is an outbreak among health care workers - I believe the Kimberley now has the second-highest number of confirmed cases in Western Australia after the Perth Metro.

Karratha and Port Hedland (two other towns similar to Newman in the Pilbara, just bigger) both have confirmed cases.

scrubbedexpat098

It's all about keeping the local indigenous population out of harm's way. They're deemed high risk and that's not something I'm about to argue with. We have just had 2 shuts up here, where loads of FIFO workers come in for 5 days, get paid we'll, and then bugger off. It's largely aimed at them, but because we come into contact with them we could just as easily carry it to the local communities. I'm happy to oblige, I would rather not be the one responsible for what would be a disaster.

Beoz

Fair play. High risk group. Makes sense.

Pollyana

Similar situation in Queensland. Access to the local indigenous townships here has been strictly controlled for about the last 3 weeks.

Luthien

From Angus: AU growth all time low of 1.63%. Singapore is off on a bit of a tear and it looks like Sweden has now started the hockey stick up. The second graph is a comparison of Australia and New Zealand's rates of growth for the past week.

Queensland has opened testing clinics in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Cairns (sites of most cases) to test anyone (with symptoms) who thinks they may have the virus, but who is not sick enough to visit a doctor. Canberra too. Possibly other areas I am not aware of. A rise in testing may cause a rise in infection rates over the next few weeks.

carcajou

Western Australia too. Anyone with symptoms can now get tested without a doctor's referral. Just show up at the clinic.

GarryP

I had yesterday as 1.13% and today as 1.16%. Basically random noise.

Interestingly Gartner is saying, after talking to CFOs, that 74% say they will be looking to move some workers 'remote', with 25% looking to shift 20+% out - mainly to save on real estate costs. So this might kick off a permanent change - and if it can be done remote, it can probably be done in india.

Beoz

Yep. Our CFO is recommending a global office cull and a total travel cull post Corona given clients are now comfortable with remote working. We have so much wasted floor space anyway and working from home was never an issue.

I was playing golf with a commercial real estate agent who business has shut up shop. I kindly advised him to start thinking about a new career now. I guess his saving grace might be the new turnover if he can find companies to all those pending vacant commercial spaces

Indians are largely useless. 5 Indian equals 1 Aussie as a general rule of thumb. Cheap costs.

Beoz

The kiwis might have to stretch this out to 6 weeks full lockdown.

Interestingly I have hearing of large businesses in engineering having to feed "work from home staff" work in NZ and at the same time putting their Oz based staff on 4 day weeks. You can imagine the Oz based staff are not happy about having to sort out the survival of the NZ business. Thanks Jacinta.