Brisbannite

It doesn't make sense. Why on earth did Dom Perrottet not have the NSW CHO present when he made the announcement about scrapping hotel quarantine? There's an overwhelming sense of dread that political decisions are over-riding medical opinion out of political expediency (Scomo's forthcoming announcement of a snap election - to be held before the NSW health system collapses under the burden of thousands of covid cases).



When questioned by a journalist why Dr Chant was absent from today's press conference. "Perrottet argued that there were various messages the “public needed to hear” on different days."

When politicians control the messaging and decide what the people who elected them (that's open to interpretation in Perrottet's case) "need to hear" that starts looking like Fascism 101 to me .

Beoz

Don't worry .... the Queensland CHO had her say.

In Queensland, chief health officer Jeannette Young was notified via “a very brief text message” of the huge change.

“There has just been an enormous decision this morning that I haven’t been able to get my head around so I need to go and work out what that change means,” she said.

Poor lady ........ she needs to take a little lie down at lunch time.

Beoz

By the way, on this topic, I don't believe there is much difference to letting in double dosed vaccinated travellers to what is expected from our own citizens anyway in NSW. Everyone is expected to be double dosed vaccinated in NSW so you are just letting in the same protected people anyway, and NSW already has Covid circulating so letting the virus in becomes a moot point. Even better, international travellers need to be tested for Covid before departing and on arrival so there's an extra safeguard anyway. We don't run around testing all the double vaccinated citizens of NSW so why not, let the international travellers in. I don't think it needs a CHO's approval to do the maths on this one.

Brisbannite

and Twitter is proving that sometimes humour can be a good way of dealing with trauma. People are astonished at what they're seeing. This kinda

physiogirl76

Excellent news - NSW is leading the way as usual. It's consistent with what the majority of the western world is already doing - quarantine free travel for vaccinated people has been a reality in many parts of the world for months now. Sometimes with pre-departure Covid tests which provide an extra layer of protection.

Covid is circulating in NSW - like lots of other infectious diseases - so scrapping quarantine for the vaccinated makes sense.
Of course, this only works in jurisdictions which have moved on from zero Covid and where the vaccination rate is high (like NSW). But essentially, it's in line with medical evidence backed up by epidemiologists.
Vaccinated people are not the drivers of the pandemic. Everybody will get Covid at some point anyway. Get vaxxed.

It will be great for all those who have families overseas - and for those thousands of Aussies/residents who have been unable to return home for months.

Brisbannite

Yes its very good new for those who have been unable to return home for months. Have you been able to book a flight? There's about 45,000 people registered with DFAT wanting to get back.

physiogirl76

I had a flight booked on 1 October but it was cancelled due to the current flight caps so airlines were severely overbooked and had to offload many passengers. I was unable to rebook as there were no available tickets back to Australia for the rest of the year.
Today's announcements are a true step forward - with caps for vaccinated people being lifted - and will allow so many Australians to resume their life back home.

I don't envisage case numbers to go up substantially after today's announcements as there is quite a strong safety net (vaccination, pre-departure tests and other public health measures e.g. masks). Also, the purpose of quarantine is to separate healthy people who have been exposed to the virus, and therefore, could become infectious, from other healthy people who have not been exposed to the virus. Greater Sydney is no different than e.g. Europe or the US where Covid is circulating so quarantine for incoming travellers who are vaccinated and tested negative doesn't really make much sense anymore. And it looks like NSW will hit >90% vaccination rate in November anyway so that's another reason to move on.

Brisbannite

That's rather concerning, maybe the airlines will start ramping up to meet the increased demand.

physiogirl76

Yes, they will. My travel agent has just confirmed that Singapore Airlines will be opening SIN-SYD inventory for sale shortly.
Given that the planes were basically flying empty at just 10% capacity and some flights have turned into cargo-only flights, it will be relatively easy for the airlines to start freeing up more seats and tickets.
Nothing like pre-Covid but it's a start...

Brisbannite

Yes its a start, there's a few thousand Australians stranded in and around Singapore who will be eagerly waiting for those additional seats to become available.

TheStraits Times is saying this about SIA. If I were you I'd be waiting on the SIA website at 12pm Singapore time on Saturday just in case your agent isn't that quick off the mark, those tickets are going to sell out in minutes.

Beoz

It's a chicken and egg situation. The airlines aren't going to fly at a loss if there's caps, and those travellers wishing to return will remain stranded. If the caps get removed for Sydney, airlines will fly bringing both stranded and other travellers in. For Sydney and Melbourne, there is no goal of zeros anymore, they just need to open the international borders with no quarrentine. There is no need for it once the vax rate is at a certain level and we are living with the virus, which is where Sydney is at now, and Melbourne very soon.

Brisbannite

.....I forgot to add that Morrison is going to ensure that only those with Australian residency and citizenship will be allowed in to NSW. The Feds control the issuing of entry visas, not the states. That should allow people to return to NSW before its borders are open to tourists. Perrottet is all pi$$ and vinegar at the moment, but he'll get brought into line soon enough, just like Gladys was.

Beoz

Perrottet planted the seed and boom, the feds reacted. Aim for everything, and get something. Perrottet got exactly what he wanted. It wasn't that long ago they made the agreement the "WHOLE" country must be at a certain level of vaccination before any international travel was possible. Well that changed swiftly. Won't be long now until the tourists are back in Sydney.

Beoz

Good article here. I dare say the typical SMH reader won't be happy with it, but there you go.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/...16-p590hy.html

Beoz