From: slider@atashram.com

A man in New South Wales, an elderly man in Tasmania and a person in
Victoria have died of coronavirus, taking the national death toll to 54.

The victim in NSW was a 69-year-old Newcastle man who caught the virus on
a trip inter-state.

The Tasmanian was described as an elderly man who died in Northwest
Hospital overnight. The Victorian's age and gender have not been released.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8206849/Coronavirus-claims-life-Australia-bringing-total-number-deaths-52.html

There were 49 new cases in NSW on Thursday, a modest increase from 39 new
cases on Wednesday.

Thirteen new cases were recorded in Victoria while Queensland reported 12
new cases and no deaths.

There were four new cases in Tasmania, seven in South Australia and three
new cases were recorded in the ACT, taking the territory's total to 103.

The news comes amid fears Australia could be trapped in coronavirus
lockdown until the start of 2021.

Experts say the tough social distancing measures will mean not enough
people are immune to the deadly bug.

The Federal Government took swift action to stop the spread of COVID-19 -
which has killed nearly 90,000 people worldwide - and infection rates
across Australia are relatively low, with 6,109 cases and 51 deaths to
date.

But this could prove to be a double-edged sword, with any relaxation of lockdown restrictions potentially creating a huge spike in cases,
scientists predicted.

But in Australia, not enough people will have been exposed to COVID-19 - meaning it could still prove fatal for the elderly and those with
pre-existing medical conditions.

The situation has the potential to create a dangerous new social
stratification in Australia, with healthy people allowed outside and the elderly trapped in their homes until a vaccine is produced.

Paul Komesaroff, Professor of Medicine at Monash University, told Daily
Mail Australia the Federal Government's 'responsible' approach to the
pandemic may be a mixed blessing.

'In the UK and the United States - because of the irresponsibility of the political leaders - they missed the opportunity to impose restrictions
early and huge numbers of people are getting the disease,' he explained.

'But it does mean that the peak is very, very sharp, and it may well be
that the timeline for them is shorter than it will be for us. Ironically.'

A world-leading specialist on epidemic response, Professor Komesaroff said
the strategy means Australia will likely avoid the 'terrible suffering'
seen overseas, and be able to provide proper treatment to all patients hospital.

The Deputy Chief Medical Officer said easing social distancing measures
could have serious implications 'down the track.'

'If we don't have these measures, one person can lead to 400 other cases
within a month,' he said.

'That is the sort of explosive epidemic we've seen in other countries. And
we just cannot afford at this stage to be considering that happening.'

'The fear is that as we start to lift those measures and allow people to
get on with their lives, there are still a lot of susceptible people left
in the population who could get infected, and we want to avoid seeing a
further outbreak occur,' he said.

'To prevent that we really need to have very good testing, very good situational awareness of what might be happening out there in the
population as we lift those measures.

'We need to be ready to detect and isolate cases as soon as they're
discovered, and potentially to re-introduce some of those social
distancing measures if we get a hint of a second wave.'

Asked if Australia's borders would have to kept closed for up to two years until a vaccine was found, the professor did not rule out the possibility.

'That depends on what is happening in the rest of the world in terms of
the epidemic and, of course, the vaccine,' he said.

'If we have a vaccine which does work, and does give lasting immunity and
can be rolled out across the world, not just in Australia, then that
changes everything.

'Certainly the border closures will be a component of what needs to happen
into the future. How that would actually work remains to be seen.

'We are an island, of course, and that's our advantage. But we also do
need to our trade both back and forth, to continue in the society that we love.'

'I just want to reiterate that there is no specific treatment yet proven
to be able to cure this virus,' he said.

He also said he was 'concerned' about reports that people in Japan and
South Korea have been infected again after overcoming the virus, leading
to fears the virus is mutating.

If people can get re-infected then making a vaccine is going to be much
harder.

'If immunity does not last for a long time that has implications for the vaccine. If there are slight changes in the virus that leads us to be able
to be re-infected, that also has vaccine implications,' he said.

### - lagging behind the times as always (i think they've only just moved beyond the 90's scene there? heh) it would seem the backwater island
called australia is typically only just now starting to get hit by the coronavirus weeks behind everyone else?

with currently only 54 'recorded' deaths there (i.e., as with everywhere
else that number is likely far higher due to people dying quietly at home
or in care homes etc and not being recorded...) it will thus be quite interesting to note just how their anti-epidemic measures of worrying
about 'heard-immunity' will thus pan out in the end or not?

it'll be interesting to watch because chances are, that whatever they do,
and just like everywhere else, it wont be very effective due to the
incredibly 'insidious' nature of this virus to readily infect people and
not have them showing any symptoms for anything up to 2 or 3 weeks, all
the while shedding itself to everyone around them and remaining on
surfaces for days, quietly infecting colleagues, families and friends
alike like a ticking time bomb that violently explodes 3 weeks farther
down the road whether under lockdown conditions or not! one guy in china remaining infectious throughout for a total of 49 days?? (yak!)

i.e., the uk being an island too, it wasn't very long before a mere 50
deaths here has turned into nearly 1000 fatalities per day! (980 in just
the last 24 hours, a figure higher than italy!) despite the lockdown! even
to that of putting our PM into an intensive care unit for several days
(the first world leader to be severely affected/nearly died!) the outcome
of which being literally touch & go there for a little while as to whether
he'd actually make it back out of there or not? (the lucky bugger!)

that we should accordingly now get some good stats out of australia
concerning just how this virus actually works & spreads + kills, in
detail, in an closed/smaller community if nothing else, perhaps somewhat
like that petri-dish of a cruise ship that everyone was stuck on that
time, albeit here in oz occurring in slow-mo...

can't imagine them escaping unscathed anyway, especially with the chances
of a vaccine rapidly fading against the backdrop of different emerging
strains of the virus potentially reinfecting everyone again & again,
forever... economies eventually crashing worldwide after months of
standstill, society crumbling into social disorder and anarchy under the
strain never to reemerge, would be inevitable...

and if so, perhaps in the end it'll be like that movie 'On The Beach'
whereby oz is merely the last one to die, albeit this time from a deadly biological killer-agent instead of a nuclear one?

so good luck oz! but methinks, like everyone else you're gonna need it!

and because we're ALL in the same boat now!

that if we 'can' be 're-infected' with this shit then this might just be
it folks!

(hurried scribbled historical note just in case...)

ahem... to the visiting aliens of the far-far distant future: i am no one
of any importance, but leave a warning message to you to observe + learn directly from our mistakes; to not make the same grievous error our civilisation made, one that has only ultimately destroyed us in the end in
a seemingly collective successful suicide bid etc, etc, etc...

humanity's epitaph: We were just too damn dumb to survive!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)