text:
Wirral Reds fan walked out at Wembley as England mascot
Oliver Buckenham enjoyed night of his life at national stadium
Oliver Buckenham
A football-mad youngster from Wirral achieved his dream when he walked out at Wembley Stadium with the England football team ahead of their 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifier.
Oliver Buckenham, seven, from Bidston accompanied the England stars when they played – and won – the crucial game against Poland.
Ollie's proud dad Paul said his son, a Liverpool fan, had walked out with Gary Cahill and had enjoyed every moment of his trip down the London.
He said: "It's just so unreal – he walked out with Gary Cahill because it was done on order of height.
"But when Stevie G scored near the end – Gerrard's his favour player – Ollie was just jumping up and down and running round."
Paul said: "Last night he was on a high and went with the flow. Where we were sat there were loads of Polish supporters nearby, but there was absolutely no trouble."
Oliver Buckenham at Wembley
Roy Hodgson's men eventually saw off the challenge of Poland with the 2-0 victory which secured top spot in their group and guarantees them a place in the World Cup finals in Brazil.
Ollie now has "a ton" of memorabilia including an England kit, football, Wembley pass and flags and scarves to remind him of the night.
The youngster is a keen footballer himself, playing for Ridgewood Rangers and attends Greasby Infants School.
He won the Player Escort place after entering a national competition via the McDonald's Kickstart website.
Paul said they were travelling back up to Birkenhead this afternoon after a "bit of a look round" in London during the morning and added: "It's been amazing, but it will be back to normality for us now."
Greasby
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Gun CrimeMum whose son was murdered 10 years ago fears she 'could be walking past his killer'The case became known as 'The Murder in the Mist' but a decade on Joey's family still have no justice


text:
The Environmental Damage (Prevention and Remediation) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2019
As Enacted Cited authorities 8 Cited in Related
UNITED KINGDOM STATUTORY INSTRUMENT
2019 No. 1285
Environmental Protection, England
Made 26th September 2019
Laid before Parliament 27th September 2019
Coming into force in accordance with regulation 1
The Secretary of State makes these Regulations in exercise of the powers conferred by section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 19721.
The Secretary of State is a Minister designated for the purposes of section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972 in relation to the environment2.
S-1 Citation and commencement
Citation and commencement
1. These Regulations may be cited as the Environmental Damage (Prevention and Remediation) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2019 and come into force 21 days after the day on which they are laid.
S-2 Amendment of the Environmental Damage (Prevention and Remediation) (England) Regulations 2015
Amendment of the Environmental Damage (Prevention and Remediation) (England) Regulations 2015
2. After regulation 18 of the Environmental Damage (Prevention and Remediation) (England) Regulations 20153, insert—
S-18A
"Reporting by enforcing authorities
18A.—(1) Where an enforcing authority has served a responsible operator with notification under regulation 18(1) after the coming into force of this regulation, the enforcing authority must, as soon as reasonably practicable, notify the Secretary of State of the relevant environmental damage.
(2) The notification provided to the Secretary of State under paragraph (1) must contain the following information—
(a) the type of environmental damage, according to the categorisations set out in regulation 4(1)(a) to (d),
(b) the date on which the environmental damage occurred or was discovered, and
(c) the activity which caused the environmental damage, according to the list set out in Schedule 2, except in cases where regulation 5(2) applies.
(3) The Secretary of State may require an enforcing authority to provide such other information in relation to the environmental damage as the Secretary of State may reasonably request.".
Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
(This note is not part of the Regulations)
These Regulations amend the Environmental Damage (Prevention and Remediation) (England) Regulations 2015 ( S.I. 2015/810). They relate to the...
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
package org.springframework.osgi.samples.simplewebapp.servlet;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.net.URL;
import java.net.URLConnection;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.Set;
import java.util.TreeSet;

import javax.servlet.ServletException;
import javax.servlet.ServletOutputStream;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;

/**
 * Simple servlet that serves resources from its war.
 *
 * @author Costin Leau
 *
 */
public class ResourceServingServlet extends HttpServlet {

	private static final String SLASH = "/";
	private static final String RESOURCE_PARAM = "resource";

	protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse resp) throws ServletException, IOException {
		serveResource(req, resp);
	}

	protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse resp) throws ServletException, IOException {
		serveResource(req, resp);
	}

	public String getServletInfo() {
		return "Resource Serving Servlet";
	}

	private void serveResource(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws IOException {

		ServletOutputStream out = response.getOutputStream();

		String resourceName = request.getParameter(RESOURCE_PARAM);
		if (resourceName == null || resourceName.trim().length() < 1) {
			out.println("No resource specified, returning the list of available resources...");
			listAvailableResources(response);
		}

		else {

			if (!resourceName.startsWith(SLASH))
				resourceName = SLASH + resourceName;

			URL sourceURL = getServletContext().getResource(resourceName);

			if (sourceURL == null) {
				out.println("Resource [" + resourceName + "] not found, returning the list of available resources...");
				listAvailableResources(response);
			}
			else {
				URLConnection connection = sourceURL.openConnection();
				connection.setUseCaches(false);
				response.setContentLength(connection.getContentLength());
				response.setContentType(connection.getContentType());
				sendStreamToClient(connection.getInputStream(), out);
			}
		}
		out.close();
	}

	private void listAvailableResources(HttpServletResponse response) throws IOException {
		Set sortedResources = new TreeSet();

		discoverFolderContent(sortedResources, SLASH);
		response.setContentType("text/plain");
		ServletOutputStream out = response.getOutputStream();
		for (Iterator iterator = sortedResources.iterator(); iterator.hasNext();) {
			out.println((String) iterator.next());
		}
	}

	private void discoverFolderContent(Set aggregatedContent, String path) {
		Set resources = getServletContext().getResourcePaths(path);
		for (Iterator resourceIterator = resources.iterator(); resourceIterator.hasNext();) {
			String resource = (String) resourceIterator.next();
			aggregatedContent.add(resource);
			if (resource.endsWith(SLASH)) {
				// recursively add folder
				discoverFolderContent(aggregatedContent, resource);
			}
		}
	}

	/**
	 * Copies the bytes from one {@link InputStream} to an {@link OutputStream}.
	 *
	 * @param source
	 * @param target
	 * @throws IOException
	 */
	private void sendStreamToClient(InputStream source, OutputStream target) throws IOException {
		try {
			int i;
			while ((i = source.read()) != -1)
				target.write(i);
			target.flush();
		}
		finally {
			source.close();
		}
	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Tag: Dr Jeannette Young
This shit is bananas.
On the 25th of March, 2020 Queensland had closed its state borders. As time went on and the threat receded they opened up to other states but not to New South Wales where cases numbers remained high.
Yet the numbers did come down and on the 10th of July the borders were opened with New South Wales.
Following a break-out of cases the borders were closed again on the 8th of August.
On the 3rd of November my home state opened up to NSW again with the exception of the greater Sydney area.
On the 24th of November it was announced that residents from the greater Sydney area would be welcome too from the 1st of December without the need to quarantine for 14 days. This followed 28 days of no community transmission in Sydney.
Much of Greater Sydney has been barred from entry since August 1.
Queensland closed its borders to parts of Victoria in mid-May, and all of the state from the start of July.
There were high hopes to open up to Adelaide soon too.
"The important thing is to recognise that this virus is circulating throughout the world, that the case numbers are increasing. We're very safe here because of international border restrictions, but it could happen at any time. It was so unexpected when they got that case in South Australia and their hospital system down there is to be commended, that they picked up that case so quickly. Any cough, cold, sniffle, sore throat, diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting, any symptom, anywhere in the state, please just come forward and get tested," Queensland's Chief Health Officer Dr Jeanette Young advised.
Wednesday.
The next day the Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced she would open borders with Victoria on the 1st of December following 28 days of no community transmission.
"Can I congratulate [Victorian Premier] Daniel Andrews, their Chief Health Officer and all of Victorians because this is just such fantastic news," Ms Palaszczuk said.
Residents of 20 hotspots in Adelaide could not do the same yet but given recent developments with the South Australia lockdown that could just be a matter of time.
"[The Chief Health Officer] is still concerned about that cluster, but we will make further announcements about that at the end of the month," the Queensland Premier said.
Coming from those kind of hotspots in Adelaide and or overseas in the past 14 days would see people required to complete a border declaration to enter the state.
The "hard border" it was announced the same day would be dismantled come the first of December. The operation spread across the state had been a huge undertaking manned by Queensland Police, the Australian Defence Force and the State Emergency Services.
Those travelling from hotspots would have to fly into Queensland.
Flights in domestic airports direct from any hotspots would be me by police and random checks of other flights would be conducted.
Failure to comply with a travel obligation could lead to a $4,003 fine.
"Importantly, for those people that have been in Adelaide, or any hotspot that may be declared, or overseas within the 14 days, they will need to complete the online border declaration pass application, and fly into Queensland. They won't be allowed to travel across the road borders and undergo mandatory hotel quarantine for 14 days, unless they have an exemption," explained Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski.
That didn't mean it would be a free for all driving into Queensland.
"You won't see the fixed checkpoints on Queensland's borders anymore — on the roads that is. Police will still be conducting random intercepts of vehicles and checking, in particular, people that may have come from South Australia. We'll also be checking for people who may have travelled from the hotspot and have not completed their border declaration," the Deputy Commissioner explained.
It did mean the closure of Queensland's state borders for the first time in a century was about to end.
Deputy Commissioner Gollschewski said more than 1 million vehicles and 640,000 travellers had been checked during the border closure and more than 50,000 people into quarantine.
The policeman was also proud of his fellow officers.
"That's a long haul … nine months of standing on borders. It's a great relief for us to be able to return those officers to their normal duties," he said.
Interestingly given the scope of the operation he advised the hard border could be brought back within a day if need be.
With the announcement of opening up the border the Queensland Premier spoke of hope for families to come together and tourist towns like Cairns and the Gold Coast to see some extra business having suffered so much in 2020 due to the loss of international and at times domestic travellers.
Flight Centre CEO Graham 'Skroo' Turner who had to shut 100 of his centres across the country earlier in the year told ABC Radio Brisbane that his company had received more domestic online booking yesterday than any other day in the history of the company.
"It just shows you how quickly people will come back," he said.
Flight Centre CEO Graham 'Skroo' Turner told ABC Radio Brisbane the business received more domestic online bookings yesterday than on any other day in their history.
"We've got a lot of people who are only working two or three days a week, they'll be going to full-time as soon as the business is there," he said.
The Queensland Premier was adamant, "I can't predict the future."
However she spoke about what people had endured with the border closure and allowed to admit she hoped.
"Let's hope, fingers crossed, that that won't happen, let's absolutely hope that families can get together with families over this Christmas period," she said.
Some words ring truer now in light of recent events than they already did back then.
"We have to make sure that we manage our international borders. If Australia's going to open up to Australia, the last thing we want to see, to put Australians at risk, is for a whole scale opening of our international borders — that would be catastrophic. Our hotel quarantine across our nation — now that we're opening up Australia to Australia — needs to be even tighter. We still have to live in a COVID-safe world, unfortunately things are not normal, and what we're seeing overseas in the Northern Hemisphere, you only need one outbreak in hotel quarantine and you're back to square one," she said.
In regards to state border closures she indicated the following of the National Cabinet decision to define hotspots.
"The threshold will be that we will go to a hotspot regime, which is what we have done in the past. We've had a High Court case which said very clearly that states do have the option to close borders to protect the health of their citizens."
I will post here an interview that the Queensland Premier had with a Morning TV crew who are based down south.
Palaszczuk has chosen her words poorly in the past but she is all class while these two clowns make absolute fools of themselves.
She also spoke perhaps for the first time publicly about personal losses during the time she led our state through the greatest crisis of modern times. She hasn't played this card in the past when pushing us through these contentious decisions, she hasn't felt sorry for herself, she has stayed the course, put the lives of others before any other consideration and made the tough calls.
That's a leader!
Thank you Premier Palaszczuk and thank you Professor Young.
In Queensland on the 25th of November, there had been 1,291 cases of COVID-19, six deaths, 1,675,612 tests conducted. There were currently 29 active cases in my home state.
Tagged Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski, Dr Jeannette Young, Flight Centre, Graham Skroo Turner, Planet America, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, Seth Meyers2 Comments
COVID-19 DIARY – BORDER WARS PART IX
Posted on December 22, 2020 by Lloyd Marken
Just hours before Queenslanders went to the polls Premier Anastacia Palaszczuk announced that travel would be allowed between New South Wales and Queensland with the exception of greater Sydney from 1am 03NOV2020.
Despite opening up thousands of people to travel Daniel Cschwind, CEO of the Queensland Tourism Industry Council seemed non-plussed advising that tourism business from Sydney was normally worth $3 billion a year.
If the cynics amongst us thought Palaszczuk was playing politics on the eve of an election she firmly denied it.
"I have accepted her [Dr Jeannette Young's] recommendations to me lock, stock and barrel. I am honest with the people of Queensland, that is what I said I would do," she said.
The Premier held firm about putting health concerns above economic ones.
"When you have a virus that is out of control your economy is locked down. There was one or two cases in Victoria, the virus got out of control and the whole state was locked down and we saw 700 deaths — I do not want to see 700 deaths in Queensland," she said.
To read the ABC coverage it certainly seemed to indicate that the Qld Premier would get no boost from her decision with the QANTAS CEO and Tourism Vendors being asked to offer their two cents all of which was negative.
Chief Health Officer Dr Jeanette Young was more concerned with stopping the spread of the disease.
"I have reviewed the situation in NSW and prior to yesterday they had four LGAs [local government areas] in Sydney that had had cases of community transmission that NSW was unable to link to any known clusters, which means that they have transmission and they don't know where it is coming from," she said.
People travelling from rural New South Wales into Queensland through Sydney would not be able to enter for 14 days. Queenslanders who landed in Sydney airport could travel onto rural New South Wales as long as they didn't stop in Sydney.
When asked about opening up fully to the southern state Dr Young advised, "I will always give advice to make sure that Queenslanders are kept as safe as they can possibly be kept safe. Anything could happen, but also there's a strong possibility that we'll be open because NSW is getting on top of these cases," she said.
"We have always said as a national cabinet we have an aspiration that families can be reunited around Christmas time, but once again anything can happen so we need to monitor community transmission," Premier Palaszczuk advised.
That week there had been two positive sewerage tests of COVID-19 in Ipswich and Brisbane's bay area urging Dr Young to tell people, "There is a concern, that we may have virus circulating and the best way to deal with that is to come forward and be tested."
In Queensland on the 30th of October there had been 1,325 cases, 6 deaths, 1,421,147 tests carried out since the pandemic began. I was three of those tests. There were ten active cases in the state.
In New South Wales on the 30th of October there had been 4,228 cases, 55 deaths and 3,042,039 tests carried out. There were 71 active cases and one person was in Intensive Care.
On the 3rd of November the World Health Organisation reported there had been 27,602 confirmed cases with a daily increase of seven. There had been 907 Australian deaths.
Wednesday Premier Gladys Berejiklian put her money with her mouth was and announced a plan to open the border with Victoria 1 minute past midnight on the 23rd of November, 2020.
Berejiklian has closed the borders to Victoria with great regret on the 8th of July.
"They may have, because of the lockdown, actually gone down a path of having eliminated it at this point in time. Come a minute past midnight on November 23, there will be free movement between NSW and Victoria," Premier Berejiklian said.
There were nine new cases in New South Wales, three local and six in hotel quarantine having returned from overseas. More than 17,000 tests were carried out in the state.
Victoria had gone five days with out a new case of COVID-19. There had been 20,345 COVID-19 cases and 819 deaths in the state.
The Australian Capital Territory followed suit with NSW in regards to Victoria.
"Waiting a full two weeks before making changes will allow enough time for ACT Health to assess the impact of restrictions and ensures the ACT is consistent with NSW," ACT Health Minister Rachel-Stephen Smith said.
"The Premier of NSW wouldn't be opening her border if she didn't have confidence Victorians could maintain the low numbers," advised Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews.
However, he urged Victorians not to be in too much of a hurry to leave their own state.
"Don't go to Sydney for Christmas for summer holidays. We have lots of places here you can visit," he said.
Victoria has never closed its borders to residents from other states.
On the 4th of November the World Health Organisation reported there had been 27,610 confirmed cases with a daily increase of eight. The death toll remained 907 Australian deaths.
Tagged Coronavirus, COVID-19, Daniel Cschwind, Dr Jeannette Young, Premier Anastacia Palaszczuk, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Queensland Tourism Industry Council, Rachel-Stephen Smith, World Health Organisation8 Comments
COVID-19 DIARY – THE THIRD QUARTER
Posted on December 5, 2020 December 2, 2020 by Lloyd Marken
And so we entered the third quarter of living with this thing we called COVID-19. In fact such a big part of our lives throughout 2020 it was simply referred to as COVID. Some called it Coronavirus and some called it the Rona and one dipshit called it the Chinese virus. Stop trying to make fetch a thing Ballbag – its not a thing.
In Queensland we had had a few moments of alarm, the two young women who came back from Melbourne "bag shopping" and the Wacol cluster. We would look to the south and figured it was only a matter of time before we were in trouble. We still felt that way but on the 1st of October the government announced certain restrictions were going to be lowered.
Outdoor density in businesses with a COVID Safe Plan would be one person per 2 square metres. The maximum number of people at an outdoor event went from 500 to 1,000. Outdoor stadium capacity increased from 50 to 75 per cent. These directives replaced previous ones made 24JUL2020.
Queensland planned to re-open with New South Wales from 01NOV2020 if they achieved 28 days of no community transmission. The border had previously been opened with NSW from the 10th of July before closing again on the 8th of August.
Standing, eating and drinking at bars and restaurants would be allowed in Queensland too.
Stage 5 in Queensland would start on the 1st of November too, allowing 40 people at private gatherings and 40 people will be allowed to dance at weddings. That cap of 40 was hoped to go to unlimited in December.
"The reason we can ease more restrictions is because families have done a good job," advised Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.
Stage 6 restrictions scheduled to begin in Queensland on the 1st of December would have gatherings of 50 people in homes and 1,500 people will be allowed to attend outdoor events.
Dancing at weddings rather than clubs was explained by Queensland's Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young.
"It's about that close interaction. At venues there are a lot of people who don't know each other, you wouldn't normally interact with them. That's why we want to start with weddings, where people genuinely do know each other," Dr Young said.
Dr Young did give the green light for wriggling your hips while standing at a bar.
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian advised she had not spoken to Premier Palaszczuk but was happy with the possibility of opening up in November.
"I would welcome that with open arms. If that is the case, I'm ecstatic about it. I would've hoped it happened sooner but I can live with the 1st of November because it gives hope to our local residents," Ms Berejiklian said.
There were two new cases reported overnight in my home state, both in hospital having been onboard a ship in quarantine. 5,200 tests had been carried out overnight in Queensland.
There were now six active cases in my home state.
In Victoria there were seven new confirmed cases of COVID-19 overnight and two deaths – both linked to aged care. Spare a thought for them and their families for the moment. There is a lot of talk about how lucky Australia has been and there has been a lot to be grateful but a lot of Australian died, most of them elderly, most of them without their family able to say goodbye and I don't care how old they were they still had some life left to live.
Eleven cases in Melbourne were now linked to a Butcher at the Chadstone shopping centre. The Victorian Premier pointed out this group of cases could've been worse if restrictions had been lower.
"There's been a bit written and a bit said in recent times, and perhaps for a long time, about superspreaders and how a very small number of cases can lead to a very large number of cases. Just for a moment imagine what a normal Chadstone would have looked like … if that scenario had played out when we had had literally, in the course of a day, hundreds of thousands of people moving through that setting," Andrews said.
He warned that the modelling showed if restrictions were lowered too soon then an event like Chadstone could lead to hundreds of cases.
Despite this, he believed at the moment Melbourne was still on track to see further restrictions lowered come the 19th of October. Although it would depend on how things panned out. He did suggest travel outside of Melbourne may not be on the cards at that exact point.
"I can't at this stage say that that ring of steel, as it has been called, will just be thrown open and you can travel throughout the state. That might not be a smart thing to do at that point. But that shouldn't also be read to mean that for all of the second half of October and all of November that those rules would stay in place, it might be a shorter period," the Premier advised.
In America this week Ballbag and former Vice President Joe Biden faced in their first debate. There were no winners on the night Ballbag was a pig who couldn't speak with any grace or respect, a mockery of his office which he invokes whenever anybody asks him simple questions in press conferences.
We also got news of why Ballbag was so desperate to hold onto the Presidency, he was in debt. Some businessman.
President Elect Joe Biden was hardly the debater of his former years but when he repeated my son until being he was able to finish his sentence he showed a grace and strength that Trump for all his bluster has never been able to muster even an atom of.
Eyeballing the camera, Biden addressed Americans and showed where his attention was focussed. Trump leaning over his lectern because he can't stand up straight deflecting away from any of his own failings showed what he offered the country in crisis.
Like his shrivelled-up mushroom it was nothing of substance.
As COVID-19 was on the decline for now in Victoria and therefore Australia it was on the rise in other countries, some of which were yet to have really ever have received a respite of serious note like the United Kingdom where I had loved ones.
I was consumed with the last week of my secondment but in the weeks ahead it would come to pass to new waves in Europe and the Americas far worse than those experienced in March and April would come to pass.
For now here were some of the stats as reported by Crikey on the second of October.
For the month of September 23 countries recorded zero deaths up from 21 in August.
Total deaths in September across the world were 158, 543 down form 173,778 in August. For Crikey that was progress albeit it was different for each region.
In Europe deaths per million were 7.8 in Switzerland, 6.8 in Italy, 5.5 in Ireland and 2.4 in Germany. All of these countries had suffered deaths per million per month above 70 in April. Ireland and Italy were above 230.
COVID-19 was already making its presence felt again in France and Spain. In September there were 1,321 death at twenty per million in the former and 2,697 deaths at 58 per million in the latter.
Also North, South and Central America were now far and away the worst hit. Six American nations with 9.9 per cent of the world's population accounted for more than half of the 158,543 global deaths due to COVID-19. They were the USA (24,134 deaths), Brazil (22,581), Mexico (13,005), Argentina (8,439), Colombia (6,634) and Ecuador (4,799). Of the 16 countries with the most deaths per million, 13 were in the Americas.
The article noted that data, "only as reliable as the agencies in each source country. We must accept that several nations cannot report infections and deaths accurately, including some which showed zero deaths in September."
These include poor African countries Burundi, Eritrea and Niger which have basic health facilities, and China which, with 1.44 billion people spread across 9.6 million square kilometres, seems unlikely to have had no deaths at all.
Five advanced nations which suffered no fatalities in September were Estonia, Iceland, Luxemborg, Singapore and Taiwan. Malaysia only recorded nine deaths and New Zealand three.
The following countries Finland, Latvia, Cyprus, Norway, Lithuania, Germany, Slovakia, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Uruguay recorded deaths below three per million.
Six countries lost more than 30 to 70 people per million in September, Bulgaria, Bahrain, Oman, Spain, Romania and Israel.
Only three countries fared worse in the same month, America with 73 deaths per million, Chile with 76 per million and Argentina with 186 per million.
Just three countries fared worse than 70 deaths per million: the US, Chile and Argentina (186).
In Australia there had been 234 deaths in the same month which equalled out to 9.2 people per million. In August 455 deaths had equated to 17.8 per million. Of fifty four highly developed nations Australia ranked 29th last month just outside the top half.
The United States of America ranked 52nd out of those 54 advanced nations with 23,134 deaths at a rate of 73 per million. Chile with 1,452 deaths equalled a rate of 76 deaths per million and Argentina with 8,439 deaths equalled the worst rate of 186 deaths per million in their population.
Crikey noted, "September confirms that most governments which are following the science, speaking the truth to their citizens and implementing appropriate preventative and remedial strategies are making progress. But not all. Random surges are still bedeviling several nations, despite their best efforts. Those regimes not yet following the science, not being straight with their people and not implementing the recommended policies are experiencing serious and worsening outcomes."
As we began the next quarter there was hopeful signs in Victoria and troubling ones abroad. Europe and North America were about to head into winter too.
On the 2nd of October the World Health Organisation reported there had been 34,216,443 confirmed cases globally with a 324,784.
On the 29th of September we had reached over one million deaths globally with 1,002,734 with a daily increase of 3,896.
On the 2nd of October there had been 1,013,318 deaths globally with a daily increase of 6,274.
In China there had been 91,082 reported cases with a daily increase of 21. There had been 4,746 deaths with a daily increase of none. I mean that is really something extraordinary.
In Fiji there had been 32 confirmed cases so far and two deaths.
In Cambodia there had been 278 confirmed cases with a daily increase of one. There had been zero deaths reported which was still the case.
In Rwanda there had been 4,843 confirmed cases with a daily increase of three. There had been 29 deaths in the country.
In Malaysia there had been 11,484 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 260. Malaysia was about to see a sharp rise in case numbers. There had been 136 deaths in the country.
In Norway there had been 14,027 with a daily increase of 113. There had been 274 Norwegians die from COVID-19.
In Australia there had been 27,096 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 18. There had been 888 deaths with a daily increase of two.
In Ireland there had been 36,597 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 442. There had been 1,806 deaths with a daily increase of two.
In Singapore there had been 57,784 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 19. There had been 27 deaths. Singapore who were noted for managing COVID-19 better than most during the dark days of March eventually saw case numbers rise in April and continue to be of significance through to July. Their highest daily increase in cases numbers was 1,426 on the 21st of April. There had been a daily spike of 908 cases on the 6th of August but throughout September there had been no daily briefings that reported more than double digits. They had never reported more than two deaths in a daily brief.
In Japan there had been 84,215 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 652. There had been 1,578 deaths with a daily increase of seven.
In Oman there had 98,585 confirmed cases with no daily increase. There had been 935 deaths with no daily increase.
In Morocco there had been 126,044 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 2,391. There had been 2,229 deaths with a daily increase of 35.
In Canada there had been 158,758 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 1,797. There had been 9,297 with a daily increase of six.
In Israel there had been 247,411 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 9,078. There had been 1,605 deaths with a daily increase of 37.
In Indonesia there had been 291,182 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 4,174. There had been 10,856 with a daily increase of 116.
In Pakistan there had been 313,431 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 625. There had been 6,499 with a daily increase of 15.
In Italy there had been 317,409 confirmed cases with a daily increase 2,548. There had been 35,918 deaths with a daily increase of 24.
In Turkey there had been 320,070 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 1,407. There had been 8,262 deaths with a daily increase of 67. Throughout October, Turkey would see a steady rise in numbers before experiencing an even sharper increase.
In the United Kingdom there had been 460,182 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 6,914. There had been 42,202 deaths with a daily increase of 59.
In Iran there had been 461,044 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 3,825. There had been 26,380 deaths with a daily increase of 211.
In Chile there had been 464,750 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 1,759. There had been 12,822 deaths with a daily increase of 81.
In France there had been 552,249 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 13,959. There had been 31,808 deaths with a daily increase of 62.
In South Africa there had been 676,084 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 1,745. There had been 16,866 deaths with a daily increase of 132. South Africa suffered worst in the middle of the year when a lot of countries were in between their first and subsequent waves. Their highest daily increase of cases was 13,944 on the 25th of July. Their highest daily amount of reported deaths was 572 on the 23rd of July.
In Argentina there had been 751,001 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 14,392. There had been 16,937 deaths with a daily increase of 418. On the 3rd of October there had been 3,351 deaths reported in the daily report.
In Spain there had been 810,703 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 11,124. There had been 34,225 deaths with a daily increase of 145.
In Russia there had been 1,194,643 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 9,412. There had been 21,077 deaths with a daily increase of 186.
In Brazil there had been 4,810,935 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 33,413. There had been 143,952 deaths with a daily increase of 1,031.
In India there had been 6,394,068 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 81,484. Numbers were going down in India but they had been severely high. 97,894 had been their highest daily case increase on the 17th of September. There had been 99,773 deaths with a daily increase of 1,095. The next day on the 3rd of October, India would surpass 100,000 deaths due to COVID-19 with 100,842.
In the United States of America there had been 7,160,476 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 44,985. There had been 205,666 deaths with a daily increase of 1,024.
Tagged Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Crikey, Dr Jeannette Young, Planet America, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, Premier Daniel Andrews, Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Vice President Joe Biden, World Health Organisation2 Comments
COVID-19 DIARY – BORDER WARS PART VIII
Posted on November 27, 2020 November 28, 2020 by Lloyd Marken
Thursday the Prime Minister Scott Morrison had made a call to the Queensland Premier making a request to see if a young woman based out of the Australian Capital Territory could come out of hotel quarantine where she was spending 14 days.
She had made the trip to Queensland to see her father who was ill.
Sadly he had passed away and now the Prime Minister was asking if there was a way to have the young woman attend the funeral with her family.
Apparently there wasn't.
Scott Morrison had lost his father earlier in the year in the wake of his failures during the worst bushfires this country had ever experienced. His father had not lived to see his son's political fortunes turn around and public support grow. It was evident that Morrison adored his father as most children do. His public discussion of his attempts to have this woman attend her own father's funeral were the first real time he had spoken of his loss.
Alas the Queensland Premier did not make it happen and did not appreciate the call. Although it must be noted the young woman was allowed out of quarantine later to say goodbye to her father on that day away from her family. She also subsequently came out publicly and said she felt the issue had been made political which she was not happy about.
Queensland Premier Anastacia Palaszczuk did have a few things to say about the incident after speaking in Parliament to say she would not be bullied.
"Look, I feel these issues very personally – just like everyone else does. That's why we've put in place this specialist care unit. We have 80 people in this exemptions unit looking at these issues and these people are human beings as well. They're having to go through all these details, and make really difficult and tough decision but this is happening in other states as well," the Queensland Premier said.
"It's happening around the world. It's not nice."
While the Premier did throw support for the border exemption unit she had created the previous Friday she did say all decisions were ultimately to be made by her Chief Health Officer Dr Jeanette Young which could be inferred as a gesture of throwing her under the bus given the political heat the Premier was receiving or a steadfast resolution that policy would be decided by those who were best placed to make these health decisions regardless of the political context.
"I also understand 229 exemptions for specialist workers, healthcare and compassionate grounds," Palaszczuk advised.
There had also been 31,000 freight exemptions granted and 170,000 border zone exemptions granted according to the Premier.
Deputy Chief Health Officer Dr Sonya Bennett also advised that Queensland Health was working to make things easier for the NSW family of 39 year old Mark Keans who was in a Queensland hospital fighting cancer to visit him.
"I think we all recognise that these are difficult situations. In every situation with Mark Keans and others, the department works closely with applying for exemptions to find a solution to support what they would like. But at the same time recognising we need to continue to mitigate any risk of transmission," Dr Bennett said.
There were two new cases in Queensland overnight with 28 active cases in the state. In the past 24 hours there had been 9,216 tests carried out.
Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles advised one active case had a positive development.
An eighty-one year old COVID-19 patient who had been in hospital for 77 days already having contracted it on the Ruby Princess cruise ship was now scheduled to move out of Intensive Care next week.
GO RICHARD!
In the United Kingdom there were 3,330 new daily cases of COVID-19 following the previous day's 3,497.
There were also five new deaths.
Scotland reported 244 new cases, the most since the 6th of May according to Reuters.
From Monday England was to bring in new bans on social gatherings to combat the rise in figures.
In Queensland the apolitical Australian Medical Association Queensland came out publicly with a strong show of support for the state's Chief Health Officer Dr Jeanette Young. As their Dr Bav Manoharan put it, "Do we want more people at funerals or do we want more COVID funerals?".
Good on them, Dr Young has done nothing but her job to the best of her ability and her actions have been of overwhelming benefit to Queenslanders.
The Queensland Premier was prepared to put it all on the line with an upcoming election in six weeks.
"If it means I have to lose the election, I will risk all that if it means keeping Queenslanders safe. I will always stand up for I believe to be right in this state," Premier Anastacia Palaszczuk said.
"I'm putting myself out there, I'm putting myself on the line. But I'm making no apologies for keeping Queenslanders safe at this time," she advised.
The World Health Organisation reported there had been 28,696,020 confirmed COVID-19 cases globally with a daily increase of 313,614.
There had been 919,724 deaths around the world with a daily increase of 5,660.
In Australian there had been 26,607 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 42. There had been 803 deaths with a daily increase of six.
In Canada there had been 135,626 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 702. There had been 9,163 deaths with no daily increase.
In the United Kingdom there had been 365,178 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 3,497. There had been 41,623 deaths with a daily increase of nine.
In India the day before there had been a new record for daily cases with 97,570. That record would be broken again on the 17th of September with 97,894 cases on that day alone. On the 16th of September there would be 1,290 deaths reported in the country, only the reporting of 2,003 deaths on the 17th of June had been larger.
On the 13th of September in India there had been it was 4,754,356 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 94,372. There had been 78,586 Indian deaths due to COVID-19 with a daily increase of 1,114.
In the United States of America there had been 6,386,832 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 45,523. There had been 191,809 with a daily increase of 1,022.
On Monday it was reported that the Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeanette Young had received death threats and now had a permanent police protection with officers at her home and travelling with her.
The Queensland Australian Medical Association President Steve Perry told of the situation for the CHO, "It has been quite stressful and it hasn't been helped by cowardly people threatening to take the life of a woman."
For her part Dr Young referred back to the suffering of others when admitting the difficulties she had endured.
"But then, this [pandemic] has taken an enormous toll on nearly every single person in our community. We can't see a clear end to this. So, we're going to all have to work this through together and work out how we can manage this as well as go forward," she said.
Queensland's Health Minister Steven Miles refused to discuss individual cases of families trying to see each other following the media coverage of one daughter trying to attend her father's funeral with the Prime Minister calling the Queensland Premier.
"I never have and never will address individual cases … I know that the chief health officer and her team go through [all exemption applications] very, very carefully, and wherever they can they are as compassionate as they possibly can be, while also ensuring Queenslanders are kept safe," said the Minister.
The QAMA President advised Dr Young had been working 5am to 10pm every day to go through hundred of applications for border control exemptions at one point.
"It was quite hard work. She now has eight or 10 people who can help her do that," he said referring to the special exemption unit.
Amazing how we can complain when we don't leaders who stand up to media spin and relentless opposition but when we finally do we don't show our support. There was an upcoming election in Queensland and Premier Anastacia Palasczuk was about to find out how much support she had.
Tagged Australian Medical Association Queensland, Chris Perry, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Dr Bav Manoharan, Dr Jeannette Young, Dr Sonya Bennett, Mark Keans, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, Premier Daniel Andrews, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Queensland Australian Medical Association, Ruby Princess, Steven Miles, World Health Organisation7 Comments
COVID-19 DIARY – BORDER WARS PART VII
Following a National Cabinet Meeting the Prime Minister was advising he was trying to get the states to agree to having their borders open by Christmas. To manage travel around the country there was discussion around "hot spots" and how to define them so as to identify when and what to shut down. Only Western Australia with its Premier riding high in the polls had declined. However that didn't mean some of the other states were varying in their conditions to going ahead with such a plan.
Economic pain aside, the virus didn't care if it was Christmas and so setting a deadline around that and not where we were with the virus seemed ill advised at best.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison was in ongoing talks with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in setting up a travel bubble with that country to aid both their economies with tourism dollars. Given New Zealand's hyge success in containing the virus this seemed like it posed more risk for them than for us.
As Reuters reported, "Australia's early international border closures, lockdowns and social distancing restrictions has seen it record far fewer coronavirus infections and deaths than other nations. Nationally there have been around 26,100 infections and 737 deaths."
Yet remarkably the same principle didn't seem to apply to state borders in some media commentary.
While it was stupefying that some couldn't handle a trip to Port Macquarie or Dubbo instead of the Gold Coast or that people couldn't consider a trip to Hervey Bay over Byron Bay or Ballarat over Adelaide or Gumeracha over Mildura or Fremantle over Darwin or Alice Springs over Bali or Cairns over Sydney. It took me six years to get to Newcastle for a long weekend trip and I survived for example.
I would point out that jobs were lost all around with this slowdown in international tourism.
The Chief Executive of the Tourism and Transport Forum, Margy Osmond was reported as saying, "Our industry remains on its knees in the fight of its life and has each month been losing thousands of jobs and $6 billion in activity from the forced shutdown of domestic travel alone."
Job loss led to debt, domestic violence, family breakdown, poverty and suicide. All from the type of people we rely upon to give us our holidays, that keep towns afloat, that build communities. That's why where we could we needed to reach out and support each other.
After the National Cabinet Meeting on Friday, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian called on the Queensland Premier to show compassion in her remarks to border closures.
"I urge the Queensland Premier to consider carefully the impact border closures are having on our communities, on our citizens on either side of the border. You have to look at the issues from a compassionate perspective, a human perspective and appreciate that people with medical challenges, with compassionate reasons, or just to get to work, need to be considered. I urge the Queensland Premier to consider all of those issues moving forward, especially given where NSW is in the pandemic and what we have demonstrated," Premier Berejiklian said.
The remarks did bring to mind recent events like one pregnant mother in Northern New South Wales choosing to seek treatment in Sydney rather than continue through the bureaucracy to get into Queensland. She had subsequently lost one of her twins.
These words had impact, they referenced lives lost not just inconvenienced. They failed to acknowledge the proposal to move the border closures into New South Wales which the Queensland Premier had suggested and the New South Wales Premier had rejected but they did hold to account the idea that things could be done better particularly by the Queensland government to support the people of Northern New South Wales who they share close ties to.
For Premier Berejikian despite the subsequent waves that had occurred in New South Wales and break-out clusters around the country not to mention the devastating second and third waves seen around the world she saw no reason not to have the country opened up again.
"If the trends continue the way they are I don't think any state border should exist by Christmas. There shouldn't really be a reason for any state to have their borders up, we only closed the border with Victoria because we had and it was a really hard decision," she said.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Premier Gladys Berejiklian can certainly hold their heads high for their consistency. The PM has consistently not wanted to have schools close nor borders. Not just for the education of our children but also because of the economic impact. When New South Wales closed its borders to Victoria months after other states had at the initial height of the pandemic, the New South Wales Premier looked genuinely sad.
"But I'm optimistic, I really am, I'm hopeful that by Christmas, even though some states might not be as comfortable as others, Australia will be a different place," the NSW Premier said.
For his part the Prime Minister advised going forward total consensus would not be a requirement for National Cabinet outcomes.
"We've decided that this notion of 100%, absolute consensus on any issue is not a way that the National Cabinet can indeed work. And so what we will do is we will set out areas where we can come together, and get as many states and territories as possible to come around that agreement," Morrison said.
"Not everyone has to get on the bus for the bus to leave the station. But it is important the bus leaves the station."
Western Australia were going their own way and that was fine.
"I'm not going to hold Australia back when one or two jurisdictions, at this point in time because of their own circumstances, don't wish to go along with the path that the country is seeking to go in. So, they are not standing completely separate for that process. They will continue to work with us. But, for them, they have got their path set, and we respect that," the PM said.
As popular as border closures have been politically they do cause enormous pain to the economy and when we say that we mean business and when we say that we mean people. Not international corporations who still have people buy online, not mining companies who still have their ships of steel or oil or coal or whatever sailing across oceans. Not banks who are advertising low interest rates but still collecting debt and still having customers deposit their doll cheque as much as one from an employer. No we're talking about people who get hired when somebody builds or renovates a house, or takes a trip down the road and buys a meal or ticket with their disposable income. Those people are as flesh and blood as any life we are trying to save from a pandemic and right now they're under the kind of pressure that could sink them for good.
The acknowledgement and concern for these people will stand Berejiklian and Morrison in good stead in the months ahead. Looking at the reports coming out of Newmarch will stand Palaszczuk in just a good a stead on the border closures.
Coincidentally the Queensland Premier referenced such circumstances in her press briefing on the same day.
"I think it's a bit disingenuous for this heightened criticism that is coming from a whole lot of levels when our fundamental concern is to look after Queenslanders and to make sure that they are safe during this time. I do not want to see what has happened in our aged care sector in NSW and in Victoria happen here in Queensland. That would be a nightmare," the Queensland Premier said.
But where the majority lies can change in an instant as the fear of the virus switches to despair over the economy and the support offered by the Federal government will have an impact on how people are dealing with the economic impact of State border closures.
What I saw though was a concerted push in the media and other governments to bring pressure for the Queensland government to end its current policies despite the fact that they were popular. I smelt bullshit, I smelt coercion from big money and I admired my Premier for holding firm.
Throughout the week the narrative was now around instances where border control had gone wrong, predominantly the mother who had tragically lost a twin.
Treasurer Josh Frydenburg had weighed in on Wednesday on the television program A Current Affair.
"I think the Queensland Premier has got some questions to answer here. How can it be okay for people to go up to prepare for a footy game, and its not okay to go to hospital for treatment? How can it be okay that a young woman loses an unborn child because of border confusion – that a four year old boy with cancer can be separated from his mother? These are cruel and confused implication from these strict border approaches. I think everyone needs to get a grip here and remember that we're first and last Australians," he said.
Which was fair enough, these were heartbreaking stories that did make you wonder if we could do things better around the borders maybe even open them up. As heartbreaking as any one of the stories of deaths in nursing home and people being unable to see their parents in their last days and the complete lack of dignity those last days had for them.
Restrictions whether you like them or not having saving far more lives than they are taking.
Getting them right to avoid any death is the end goal but I had a sneaky feeling that's not what this was about.
This was about getting those borders down to make some money and not the battling small business owner but the kind of money that donates to political parties and runs rag sheets and major television networks.
I don't mean this as a conspiracy force and this is all conjecture.
What I'm talking about about is how media in cycles and how certain narratives get pushed, certain things get coverage and certain things fade to the background. Right now the story was about why Palaszczuk was keeping the border and if it was necessary and I'm saying yes she should keep it shut and yes it is necessary and yes all these stories were about changing that and I call bullshit and I'm not falling for it.
And next week the story would be different and maybe even support border closures and that is you have got to wonder about these things.
By the way plenty of celebrities have been allowed into New South Wales and other states for film and tv productions and other valuable trade activity as well as Queensland. The Australian Football League has never held its Grand Final outside Victoria in 124 years until now and you can bet your ass after this pandemic is over they will be fighting hard to have it back there forever again just like the National Rugby League grand final is held in Sydney and Joshy boy won't be heard saying then that we're Australians first and last then.
The Daily Mail wrote "But increasing movement between other states is essential to save the nation's dying tourism industry, which employs one million workers and is set to lose a staggering $54.6billion this year due to lockdowns and border restrictions. Greater freedom will also help farmers, residents in border towns, and hundreds of thousands of Aussie families who are trapped apart in different states."
Of course that didn't take into account that success over COVID allowed restrictions to lower faster and have greater economic freedom. The prosperity that had come for Queensland from hosting the AFL grand final, from having people travel to the Far North from the South East and vice versa for holidays while there was ring of steel around Melbourne and stage 3 restrictions in regional Victoria.
Instead Agriculture Minister David Littleproud was quoted, "When the premier of Queensland can allow 400 AFL executives to swan around a resort in the Gold Coast, but won't allow teenage boarding school children to go home to see their parents into remote New South Wales, that is abhorrent. It's wrong. Australians don't do that to other Australians."
Of course the fact that boarding schools in Queensland had been to re-open so quickly was no cause for celebration, the education of our children weirdly was not of concern here. Minister Littleproud probably knew all too well how desperate farmers were for their boarding children to come home in their breaks and help, how much they were struggling, how difficult it was proving to find workers due to the lack of international students. That was true and was painful but what that had to do with a footy grand final that other states had bid to host seemed a convenient stretch.
But hey maybe that was just me.
For her part Queensland Premier Anastacia Palaszczuk was holding firm.
"It is relentless and intimidating, but I will not be intimidated. Let me make it very clear, I will not be changing that course anytime soon. If we, as a nation, can focus on Victoria and New South Wales and get everything under control there, then the whole country can open up," she said.
In Queensland there had been 1,190 confirmed cases of which there were currently 25 active all linked to the Wacol cluster.
There had been six deaths and 1,318,805 tests.
For comparison in New South Wales there had been 3,910 cases and which there were 87 currently being treated by NSW Health including seven in ICU – four of which were on ventilators.
There had been 54 deaths and 2,259,161 tests.
Which is not to say that New South Wales would always been more likely to end up with more cases due to its proximity as the business and cultural centre of the nation, nor that they have not been doing a good job of handling the virus as best they can nor that border closures will stop an outbreak occurring in Queensland and that we won't need the support then of these states that require our support now.
Just to say that this virus is hard to mitigate and anything that you can do beat it you should and maybe just maybe when our political leaders they deserve our support. But where would the news story be in that? That was last week, we need a new angle this week.
And the story of a baby that maybe didn't have to die is an important story, to tell and to hear and if it means we take a harder look at these border policies then good.
When I trained as a wardsman they took us into a room and they showed us a little box on a trolley. They told us about how it might be a job to collect a baby who had died and take it to the morgue. That little box got us all thinking and it broke our hearts.
I feel very grateful that I never had to push that box down that long corridor.
Seeing babies on life support in the intensive care nursery was enough to make your eyes glisten.
So that is what we're talking about here but it's not only what we're talking about here.
Following this press coverage a new specialist care unit began to operate to help with border crossings due to health reasons. The unit consisted of eight people including doctors, paramedics, nurses and social workers. It was part of a larger ongoing team of 80 working on cross-border travel exemptions. In the week where these tragic individual instances were in the news, 900 New South Wales residents had received treatment in Queensland hospitals.
"We understand this is a very, very difficult time for families. I know that, my government knows that. We are here to help people during this critical time," Ms Palaszczuk said.
In a spot of good for boarding students the Chief Health Officer Dr Jeanette Young also said the town of Moree in northern New South Wales could be added to the travel bubble allowing boarding students to return home for the school holidays.
"This could change, but at this point in time New South Wales does have control of their outbreak. They have been able to limit it to other parts of New South Wales. The risk of course is that people from other parts can come up to northern New South Wales. I discuss that risk every day with my New South Wales counterpart." Dr Young said.
Overnight Queensland had reported no new cases and Dr Young advised it was still too early to open up borders.
"We know unfortunately that one case can lead to a lot of cases," she said.
She advised a state would need to have recorded 28 days with no community transmission before the border with that territory could be opened up.
The federal tourism minister Simon Birmingham believed that was a "very, very high benchmark to set."
The New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejikian said, "I don't know if we'll ever get to that number. They're putting on a pretty big ask during a pandemic."
Tagged Australian Football League, Coronavirus, COVID-19, David Littleproud, Dr Jeannette Young, Josh Frydenberg, Margy Osmond, National Cabinet, Newmarch House, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Reuters, Scott Morrison, Simon Birmingham, Tourism and Transport Forum6 Comments
COVID-19 DIARY – BORDER WARS PART VI
With COVID-19 numbers down there was a renewed vested interest to see the Queensland borders open. Vested being the term.
The border closures were popular but public opinion can always be swayed by media buy in and Premier Anastacia Palazszuk was facing an upcoming state election.
As the danger receded and more and more people battled through debt and unemployment there would a change and politicians need to be two steps ahead of such things.
So Daniel Gschwind of the Queensland Tourism Industry Council advised "We need a road map that identifies triggers and indicators, which allows us a modicum of certainty. At the moment, there is no visibility and it's taking its toll economically, it's taking its toll on our state of mind. For our people."
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland sent an open letter to all state Premiers and the Prime Minister the same week call for a national framework around future border closures. The CCIQ acknowledged border closures have been an important part of dealing with COVID-19 but asked for "a transparent and easily understood set of nationally consistent principles is urgently needed".
The interesting thing is we had such shut down national borders and when there is an outbreak of a cluster we seek to shut down localities and suburbs and cities. Goods and people were still travelling across these "closed" borders too but state borders were becoming more and more a political issue.
It was a reality that border closures don't ensure that people don't cross interstate with the virus either but following people lying on their declarations, the policing of such people and stopping them at the border had proved much easier when borders were "closed".
I can't pretend the answers but Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeanette Young had proven prescient, cautious and dedicated to the safety of Queenslanders throughout the crisis. If she thought it was a good idea and the Premier was prepared to stand her ground I was of the opinion that they were doing something right. Quite frankly I was about sick of the hypocritical media coverage of it all.
But Premier Palasczsuk had chosen her words poorly.
The Premier had advised state hospitals were for "our people." That was simply inaccurate and inept.
Days later a pregnant woman from northern New South Wales flew to Sydney and lost one of her twins in surgery rather than present in Queensland.
When asked if she had regretted her earlier comment the Premier replied "No."
"Because these are really difficult decisions and … people deserve the best health care, and if they can get the health care, then that is good, if it is an emergency or if we have the expertise, of course we will do that. But we are living through a global pandemic at the moment."
You could understand if people observed wryly she was all heart.
A few things to warm your heart during COVID-19.
Monday, the 31st of August and the World Health Organisation reported there had now been over 25 million cases of COVID-19. Globally there had now been 25,155,586 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 269,420. The number of dead 844,963 with a daily increase of 5,422.
In Australia there had been 25,670 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 123. There had been 611 deaths with a daily increase of eleven.
In Canada there had been 127,673 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 315. There had been 9,113 deaths with a daily increase of five.
In the United Kingdom there were 334,471 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 1,715. There had been 41,499 deaths with a daily increase of one.
In India there had been 3,621,245 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 78,512. There had been 64,469 deaths with a daily increase of 971.
Victoria recorded 73 new COVID-19 cases and 41 deaths. A record number of deaths recorded in one day but to be clear 33 were historical cases that could now be confirmed as due to COVID-19 and linked to aged care settings.
The previous daily high of deaths in Victoria was 25 on the 17th of August.
Five hundred and sixty-five Victorians had died from COVID-19, about three quarters linked ot aged care settings.
Premier Daniel Andrews did announce that he provide a roadmap out of regional stage 3 lockdown and Melbourne's stage 4 lockdowns which were scheduled to expire 13SEP2020.
There were 195 fines handed out in the state including to a woman who drove outside a 5km radius because as she advised there was no good coffee in her area.
Seventy-three new daily cases were the lowest in a day since July. The number of active cases in the state dropped overnight from 2,830 to 2,620.
Active rural cases dropped from 166 to 154.
The number of health care workers with COVID–19 down from 406 to 378.
Victorian Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton urged Victorians to stay the course.
"The pain that is happening every day now, we are all fed up with it, absolutely fed up with it. But holding the course, even as we get down to these very low numbers, is absolutely critical to get that control that we can be confident that we will maintain," he said.
New South Wales reported 10 new cases, 6 from hotel quarantine.
In Queensland there were 24 cases linked to the Wacol outbreak. Public places near where my parents and older sister lived continued to be listed in health alerts.
There were two new cases overnight in the state.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk commented there would be no changes to the borders for the month of September.
"There will be no changes for the month of September. Our Chief Health Officer Dr Young has made it very clear she doesn't want to see community transmission, and there is community transmission at the moment in the southern states," Ms Palaszczuk said.
A Victorian man who had tested positive some time ago in his home state but had been missing flew into Queensland and was caught by Queensland police.
As a result of the cluster at the Youth Detention Centre, all prisoners across South-East Queensland were in stage 4 lockdown, confined to their cells.
"It's fundamental that we try to stop the spread of COVID in our prisons, that's why these tough measures have had to be taken," Ms Palaszczuk said.
In the past 24 hours there had been 7,489 tests carried out and there were 28 active cases in the state.
Twenty-eight active cases in Queensland and 2,620 in Victoria. All Queenslanders felt very lucky.
Tagged Coronavirus, COVID-19, Daniel Gscwind, Dr Jeannette Young, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, Premier Daniel Andrews, Professor Brett Sutton, Queensland Tourism Industry Council, The Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland, Wacol Cluster4 Comments
COVID-19 DIARY – IT'S HERE
Posted on July 30, 2020 July 28, 2020 by Lloyd Marken
Monday 15th of June I was sick with an ear ache. The 16th I worked from home and the rest I was in the office, unexpectedly on the Wednesday, as planned for the Thursday and Friday.
In Queensland there were three active cases.
Yet on the 19th of May when discussing a case that had no traceable source Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young had said, "These are the cases that worry me."
"This is why we cannot assume we have beaten this virus — we haven't. It is unlikely that we will, ever. We'll have to find ways of managing it and the hope of course is for a vaccine to assist us in that." she warned.
As we waited to see if there was a bump in cases following protests things were comparatively stable in Australia.
There was even hope to be found in the stats coming out of nations hit very hard by the pandemic.
But that was not the case everywhere.
On Thursday I was driving into work listening to the news on the radio when I heard that new cases in Beijing appeared to show a mutation of the virus.
That got me worried. What kind of mutation? Was it airborne? I think I had heard somewhere weeks earlier that the science didn't bear that out as a likely scenario but a mutation was not good news.
A quick google search told me the mutation had apparently led to a longer incubation period, this meant it could stick around longer and infect more people particularly within a household.
Not great news but not where my deepest fearful thoughts had led me.
We didn't need this disease to get much deadlier, as the week came to a close two things were being reported.
While finally the curve was flattening across Europe, America was still suffering and in South America and Africa the disease was on the ascent.
India who had gone into lockdown quickly was being left to white knuckle its way through the virus as it became the country with the fourth most number of confirmed cases in the world.
Brazil crossed a million cases and Chile and Peru were also seeing numbers skyrocket.
After a decrease in numbers Iran, one of the first countries hit hard outside of China, was now suffering a second wave.
With three actives cases in Queensland if you thought this thing was over you were not paying attention and you were a fool.
For weeks I had worried about what would happen to the third world when this virus hit them.
That threat was no longer on the horizon – it was here.
In the United Kingdom they moved from Alert Level 4 to Alert Level 3.
Schools and non-essential retail continued to gradually be re-opened. There was talk of social distancing measure going from 2 metres to 1 metre.
Boris Johnson had previously said, "As we get the numbers down, so it becomes one in 1,000, one in 1,600, maybe even fewer, your chances of being two metres, or one metre, or even a foot away from somebody who has the virus is obviously going down statistically, so you start to build some more margin for manoeuvre."
In Wales people still have to stay within five miles of their home but it was announced that schools would re-open 29JUN2020 and travel to and from Wales could go be allowed come 06JUL2020.
Retailers, houses viewings, non-contact outdoor sports and accommodation were planned to re-open the following Monday 22JUN2020. There was no announcement guidance yet for when pubs, cafes, restaurants and hairdressers would re-open.
The British government is scheduled to review its new quarantine policy on the 29th of June at the 3 week mark.
That policy requires people arriving in the UK should drive their own car to their destination and not use public transport or taxis.
They must not go to work, school or public areas or have visitors except for essential support.
They must not go out to buy food – where they can rely on others. ?… I'm not sure what happens if they can't rely on others.
The fine for being found in breach of this £1,000 pounds in England, Northern Ireland Wales. In Scotland it is £480 with the maximum fine for repeat offenders in Scotland £5,000. No idea how any of this is enforced.
Yet already the government was trying to secure travel corridors with other European countries that would be exempt from this. Even though Europe had suffered a high volume of cases and deaths.
Was it possible that the travel industry in the UK was not prepared to take this lying down and was bringing considerable political pressure to bear?
Here in Australia 97% of the airline industry business has disappeared. Airlines are facing bankruptcy and the tourism industry which is such a massive part of our GDP has lost over half of its business and its international business isn't looking to come back anytime soon.
Domestic tourism is certainly crying out for state border restrictions to be lowered in time for the winter holidays. The ski season is going ahead in the very two states that have the highest number of cases.
Yet the decisions being made currently by Whitehall in regards to international travel are simply flabbergasting to me. You've finally got this thing receding, don't fucking blow it for some money! People's lives are more important than that!
Throughout the week new cases were on the rise in Victoria. 21 on Wednesday, 18 on Thursday, 13 on Friday and 25 on Saturday.
On the eve of lowering restrictions Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews held a press conference and advised that there would be a change of plans.
He cited the case increase was not due to recent mass protests but that people who were supposed to be self isolating but rather going to family gatherings and going to work.
Sometimes they were doing this after they had been advised that they had tested positive for COVID-19!
There was no exact breakdown but we were told that over half of cases since April in Victoria had come transmissions within a household.
With that in mind gatherings were going to see tighter restrictions come back in. Only five visitors to a household at a time. Only gatherings of ten at an outside family gathering. Down from 20.
Interestingly limits of gatherings in restaurants, pubs, community halls, public libraries, Churches and museums were going to remain at 20. They were due to see an increase come Monday but that was now off the table.
The Premier said there would be a push-ahead with re-opening of gyms, cinemas, pubs and TABS with a 20 person limit.
Perhaps most interestingly the Victorian ski-season was going ahead with facilities open albeit with screening and safeguards in place.
Also flagged was the idea of locking down specific hotspot areas if need be.
There were now 45 new cases recorded over the weekend alone in Victoria.
In Queensland it was decided that except for "a limited number of essential purposes" anyone returning from 36 hotspots area in and around Melbourne would need to quarantine for 14 days upon landing in Queensland.
In Queensland there were currently three active COVID-19 cases, two of them in the Gold Coast.
What Victoria's case numbers meant for plans to lower state borders in the coming weeks remained to be seen.
In America Trump held a rally in Tulsa. With thousands of Americans dead, the economy in recession and his polling numbers down there wasn't a high turn out for the American leader.
Plenty of excuses were offered, there was after all a pandemic on and there had been weeks of protesting across the country.
There were protestors and police present and plenty of Trump supporters.
Just not 40,000 expected to fill an over-capacity area outside for a second speech nor enough to fill up the 19,000 capacity BOK centre.
Trump didn't talk too much about COVID-19 but he did mention that one of the downsides of testing so many people is you find out a lot of fucking people have it.
This is good news for most leaders, it means you can identify hotspot areas, carry out contract tracing, isolate those who have it, treat them in hospital in order to preserve their life and eventually the hope is with a lot of testing and these follow-up kind of obvious measures you stop the virus spreading and you know you therefore stop people dying and hell after a while you even start to lower some restrictions and get people back to work and having the economy moving.
It's a good thing. It's a great thing. It's a necessary thing and it's an obvious thing.
But Ballbag had a different take.
"When you do testing to that extent you're going to find more people. You're going to find more cases, so I said to my people, 'Slow the testing down please.'"
Of course the liberal bias media fixated on that and of course the White House asserted it was all in jest in regards to the horrible media coverage the President was getting.
I like to fix there were a lot of good people in Tulsa that night, braving a pandemic, showing support for an embattled leader that they believed had not only their best interests at heart but those of their country and their fellow Americans.
I saw a man in a wheelchair, young aspirational couples, black people. I'm sure there were veterans, nurses and teachers in that crowd.
I don't meant to offend them when I voice my own personal opinions about him.
So please turn away for a second….
Trumpy this country needs what only you can provide…your absence.
Or in other words.
That afternoon I was with my in-laws celebrating a birthday. We were able to spend time together as a family, it was something to feel grateful for. So many people didn't have this right now, so many people had lost loved ones, so many more were facing dire prospects.
On the 21st of June the World Health Organisation reported there had been 7,436 confirmed cases in Australia with a daily increase of 27. The number of deaths 102, a figure reached on the 24th of May.
Having reached six figures in case numbers on the 20th of June, in Canada on the 21st there had been 100,629 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 409. There were 8,346 dead with a daily increase of 46.
In Turkey there had been 186,493 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 1,248. There were 4,927 dead with a daily increase of 22.
In Germany there had been 189,822 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 687. There had been 8,882 deaths.
In Iran there had been 202,584 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 2,322. There had been 9,507 deaths with a daily increase of 115.
In Chile there had been 236,748 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 5,355. There were 4,295 dead with a daily increase of 202.
In Italy there had been 238,275 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 264. There were 34,610 dead with a daily increase of 49.
In Spain there had been 245,938 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 363. There were 28,322 dead with a daily increase of seven.
In Peru there had been 247,925 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 3,537. The number of dead were 7,660 with a daily increase of 199.
In the United Kingdom there had been 303,114 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 1,295. There were 42,589 dead with a daily increase of 128.
In India there had been 410,461 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 15,413. The number of dead were 13,254 with a daily increase of 306.
In Russia there had been 584,680 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 7,728. There were 8,111 dead with a daily increase of 109.
That day Brazil had reached more than one million cases with there having 1,032,913 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 54,771. The number of dead 48,954 with a daily increase of 1,206.
The United States of America having reached over two million cases on the 13th of June, now on the 21st there had been 2,208,829 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 36,617. There were 118,895 dead with a daily increase of 690.
Having reached 8 million cases on the 17th of June, on the 21st globally there had been 8,708,008 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with a daily increase of 138,926.
There had been 461,715 deaths with a daily increase 4,743.
461,715 people had died from this fucking thing and it was only getting started.
Yet again, I asked myself what are you going to do and I hoped I would find an answer however meagre, however small but something.
Tagged Boris Johnson, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Daniel Andrews, Dr Jeannette Young, Premier Daniel Andrews, World Health Organisation9 Comments


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Exploring new interpretations
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Thanks to Isaac Koi and the Archives for the Unexplained team the complete issues of At the Edge have been scanned as searchable PDFs.
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Gotham, Sussex
R.A. Stevens
Of course it might be questionable to lay claim to the 'original village of mad people' from Andrew Borde's Tales of the Mad Men of Gotham with several counties having villages with the same name. I believe the one in Nottinghamshire is the odds-on favourite. However, recently 'discovered' a place by this name in East Sussex I feel this county should lay claim to this scheme of feigning madness as an early tax-avoidance scheme.
Two contemporary portraits of Andrew Borde from sixteenth century woodcuts.
Borde did a lot of his writing at 'The Mint House', Pevensey, East Sussex and this was only twenty-or-so miles from Borde Hill near Cuckfield where he was born. Andrew's brother, Richard, became Vicar of Pevensey in 1520 but, after only a few years in the turbulent times of the Reformation and not wanting to change either his views or add more fuel to the fires of Smithfield, fled from England. He never returned and, when he died, left Andrew a substantial amount of local property. The newly-rich Borde bought 'The Mint House', moved in and carried on with his various careers. One was to write a book on the village of Gotham - the others being a monk, a doctor, an envoy for Thomas Cromwell and even a dubious claim to fame for being the first man to bring rhubarb seeds to Britain!
Looking at a nineteenth century OS map I saw about half-a-dozen miles or so away from Pevensey a place named 'Gotham'. Because this was close to where Borde lived, I thought this might prove interesting. Unfortunately, none of the later maps seemed to have Gotham marked and much of the area has been over-run by the urban sprawl of Hastings, Bexhill and St Leonards. Luckily, the roads on the earlier map seemed to still be there. With visions of finding the whole place covered by some appropriately picturesquely-named ugly housing estate I set out in search of Gotham. Within a short distance from Bexhill the road led out into the country and I found a lane where Gotham was marked.
If Gotham was ever a village [see Frank Earp's article] there is hardly any trace now except for a modern farm house named 'Gotham Farm' which is only slightly higher ground to the east of the marshes. More research shows it was not mentioned in Domesday Book but was recognised in the twelfth century. I would think that this was one of the many small hamlets which can be found on the marshes between Pevensey and Hastings but are now only farmhouses.
If Borde wrote, as it seems likely to me, on local places and events then it would be obvious that the Gotham he mentioned would be the one which lay only a few miles from his front door and not in Nottinghamshire or elsewhere. Maybe the dreaded 'Marsh Fever' of the locality might have added to stories of 'mad' villagers?
Originally published in At the Edge No.1 1996.
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The wild winter of 2010 saw the roads of North Yorkshire snowbound from well before Christmas until far into the New Year. This was not good news for drivers of BMWs with wide wheels and tyres, and it became a standing joke that whenever the TV news showed a clip of some unfortunates pushing a slewing car along a snow covered road it was inevitably a BeeEm.
One morning, following a heavy overnight fall, I gingerly set out for my office 35 miles to the north by first driving south to avoid the hills out of my village. My wife followed on her own shorter commute. At the point where I turned north my otherwise wonderful 535d M Sport was defeated by the gentlest of gradients, and with the help of those stuck behind the car was manhandled into an empty office car park.
I continued my journey in Mrs H's only slightly more mobile 630i, then that evening, when the snow had temporarily eased, returned to collect my car only to be confronted by a locked gate and an unfriendly note stating this to be very private property and that the police had been informed. It turned out the company in question produced highly sensitive radar equipment for such clients as NASA, and they didn't take kindly to strange vehicles in their car park. Some smooth talking and a box of chocolates were required to secure the return of my ride.
This was the final straw. Much as I disliked the breed, a 4×4 was clearly required to keep mobile during a severe rural winter, but a big muscular off-roader, soft-roader or SUV were not to my taste. However, it had not escaped my notice that Italian ski resorts were always full of Fiat Panda 4x4s, which looked kind of cute. They were also among the smallest and cheapest 4x4s on the market.
After reading favourable reports, I looked for a used example, but few were on offer for perhaps obvious reasons, given the weather. So I ordered a new red one from the local main dealer, only to learn shortly afterwards that the base model was no longer being imported. However, the upmarket, better equipped and more funky Panda Cross was still being sold, but in short supply.
Cruising the internet I rang dealer after dealer only to be told they were out of stock, then discovered Thames Motor Group in Slough. There, a cheery fellow called Abb had four Crosses in a range of colours on his forecourt, pre-registered with a mere ten miles on the clock and at an attractive discount. He would deliver and throw in a set of mats, and thus a few days later a pearlescent Funk White, with yellow and black interior (not as bad as it sounds), 75bhp 1248cc turbo MultiJet diesel Panda Cross arrived on my drive.
Compact, yet endearingly rugged looking in a Tonka Toy kind of way, the little Fiat sported air-conditioning, electric windows, stereo, alloy wheels and roof, side and nose styling mods that alluded to an outdoorsy persona, with a nod towards the 2007 Paris-Dakar Panda factory rally entries for Miki Biasion and Bruno Saby.
For what seemed at the time to be interminable snow- and ice-filled weeks, the little car became virtually our sole transport, cutting through drifts to deliver me to the station and then my wife to her place of work. With narrow wheels and 175/65×15 Continental Winter tyres we passed struggling toffs in Range Rovers uphill, and with just 1090kg to control descents presented no drama either. Elevated ground clearance made short work of deep ruts too.
When snow eventually gave way to more clement weather, the Panda was used less and less, and like a sulky child it rebelled. Water worked its way behind one of the plastic outer door panels, froze and forced it outwards, and when I opened the door next to it the distorted panel was caught and bent.
This was irritating, but the upside was that it introduced me to Knaresborough Fiat dealer Piccadilly Motors. Ringing to enquire as to the price of a new panel, the jolly parts man, after checking the car's age, told me I shouldn't be paying, and that the aftersales manager would be in touch to arrange for a new part to be fitted. Five minutes later the necessary arrangements had been made.
This far exceeded the customer service I had ever received from a BMW dealer, and from then onwards the Panda has been maintained by this friendly family-run garage. Perhaps 'premium' brand franchises see themselves as destinations with whom it is an honour to do business, and a little Fiat outlet must try harder as in direct competition with a plethora of mainstream manufacturers. Whatever, it was a refreshing change.
The only matters that have required attention can probably be attributed to inactivity on the drive: a set of brake discs and pads, and one or two minor suspension components. All relatively inexpensive. I resolved to use the Panda more, and when time was due to me as a result of long hours worked I would take a day off and we would go on adventures together.
I particularly favoured the old rally routes of my youth, and the Yorkshire Dales and mountains and lakes of Cumbria were firm favourites. Hardknott Pass, in the western Lake District, is a single track mountain road connecting Eskdale with the Duddon Valley, and includes one of England's steepest gradients at 1 in 3.
Remote, challenging, with unguarded drops and few passing places, it could have been made for a Plucky Panda's modest dimensions and four-wheel drive, particularly when ice can be encountered on the upper reaches even well into Spring. One can only marvel at how top rally drivers of thirty years ago drove flat out against the clock through the night over this torturous terrain during such classic rallies as The Illuminations and Devils Own.
Accordingly, the car handles like a front-wheel driver, with a tendency towards understeer. A jacked-up stance adds some roll, but body control is good, and the grip of the soft compound winter tyres prodigious, so by using what power is available early through a corner an acceptably neutral stance can be achieved. As ever, the management of weight transfer is the key to carrying speed out of one corner into another in a controllable manner, and remarkably good pace can be maintained.
Inside everything is refreshingly clear and simple. There are no touchscreens, mouse controls or voice activation, just good old-fashioned knobs and buttons. The plastics are better than might be expected, and although perched relatively high on pews that would never be mistaken for Recaros, there is comfort to be had.
The steering wheel rim is more shoe leather than Connolly, and the stereo unsophisticated yet perfectly adequate, but I love this honest simplicity. The gearlever of the five-speed box pops out of the lower dashboard close to hand, which enables quick shifts to keep the little fella on the boil. A 70-80mph cruise is not out of the question, with the claimed 95 mph top speed exceedable with some gradient assistance, allegedly. Even driving like an Italian, never less than 45mpg is returned, and 25 quid is usually sufficient to fill the tank. Oil and water levels never drop.
Of course enthusiastic driving can get a chap into trouble, and a few years ago I was stopped by a deeply unamused patrolman on the A1(M) for winding the Panda up to 83 mph. Hardly the fastest driver on the motorway that morning, I seemed to have been singled out because Pandas aren't suppose to cruise at such velocities.
Despite the time of day, I was both cautioned and breathalysed by the Laughing Policeman, while his colleague, the Sleeping Policeman, squirmed lower and lower into the passenger seat of the Audi patrol car, hopefully from embarrassment. Fearing prison then deportation, I found the offer of a Speed Awareness Course a pleasant surprise.
Now that the car is seven years old with just 27,000 miles on the clock, I have no desire to trade up to the more porky later Cross based on the Panda Mk3. A small car can engage emotionally with its owner to a degree a larger vehicle cannot, and the little Fiat has become something of a family pet, an antidote to the more powerful machinery with which it shares space at Equipe Herbert.
It's the car to go shopping in, the car in which to haul rubbish to the tip, and the car to leave at the station. And when the weather turns ugly, and it's dark and wet, it's the car to get you to wherever you are going, cocooned within its cosy confines, heater and wipers turned up, behind those powerful iodine lights. As a practical, cheap to run, fun to drive runabout the Panda would be hard to better, and when snow arrives, absolutely impossible.


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