Finally, NSW Premier & Liberal MLA for Willoughby Gladys Berejiklian appears to be rebelling against Scott Morrison's unreasonable & dangerous demands for the state to shoulder more of the federal government's constitutional responsibilities

News.com.au, 7 June 2021:

The NSW Premier has issued a warning to the Prime Minister, declaring if the federal government wants to increase quarantine capacity it’s going to have to “do it themselves”.

“If the feds (federal government) want to increase capacity in NSW they’re going to have to build and operate a facility themselves,” Gladys Berejiklian told 2GB’s Ben Fordham.

The state welcomed home thousands of Australians every week and there were between 5000 and 5500 people in hotel quarantine across NSW at any given time, the Premier explained.

Any more than that “isn’t good”, Ms Berejiklian declared, citing advice from police and health officials.

Ms Berejiklian warned once international borders opened those hotels could no longer be used as quarantine facilities, presenting an enormous challenge for the government.

“In the future you can’t have a hotel built for tourism as a quarantine facility,” she said.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has issued a warning to Scott Morrison. 

Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy PiperSource:News Corp Australia

 

“I said to the feds ‘5000 is all we can do in NSW and we’re doing it’. I don’t know any state that comes close to that and we do it without complaining.

“I am having a bit of a whinge today but rightfully so.”

She said another 10 new quarantine facilities would need to be built to match what NSW was already doing….. 

Very quickly after this article was published the Australian Minister for Health and Aged Care Greg Hunt went to the media with this statement:

"The PM has confirmed with the premier that at this point they're not seeking any additional quarantine facility in New South Wales".

I suspect that the premier's confirmation, if it was indeed supplied, was not enthusiastically given to 'Bully Boy' Morrison.

COVID-19 Pandemic 2020-21: Morrison Government still not listening to the experts

 

The New Daily, 30 May 2021:

The numbers used by the federal government to defend the effectiveness of hotel quarantine are wrong, one of Australia’s leading epidemiologists has said.

The criticism comes amid growing calls for every state and territory to have a purpose-built facility, as new analysis shows purpose-built quarantine costs a fraction of the economic cost of lockdowns.

Last month Prime Minister Scott Morrison sought to downplay concerns Australia would keep yoyo-ing in and out of lockdown until issues in hotel quarantine were fixed.

“A system that is achieving 99.99 per cent effectiveness is a very strong system and is serving Australia very well,” Mr Morrison said.

“If I was to tell you [last year] that would achieve a 99.99 per cent success rate, you wouldn’t have believed me. No one in this country would have believed me. I would have found that hard to believe.”

But Mary-Louise McLaws, an infectious diseases expert at the University of New South Wales and member of the World Health Organisation’s COVID-19 response team, said the PM’s figure was wrong.

“I have no idea where it’s been plucked out of,” Professor McLaws told The New Daily.

Around 70 per cent of total cases since Australia closed its borders on March 20 last year have directly and indirectly come from quarantine breaches and exemptions, she said.

Approximately 21,000 people have been infected due to those breaches and exemption.

Professor McLaws said the Australian government needed to “turn 180 degrees and rethink” the quarantine system, to save itself money and protect its citizens.

“Lockdown costs $1billion a week for NSW or Victoria,” she said.

Pointing to the Northern Territory’s Howard Springs quarantine facility, which has not leaked a single case into the community, she said states need their own purpose-built facilities, not hotels.

“Victoria has estimated they could make a purpose-built for $700 million. That’s less than the cost of a one-week lockdown,” Professor McLaws said.

“In WA, they could make a 1000-bed facility that would cost between $80 million and $200 million – that’s still a fraction.

“So when people say this is too expensive, I say try $1 billion a week.”…..

News.com.au, 29 May 2021:

A Melbourne doctor has delivered a spray at the PM on national television as frustration boils over about the Government’s biggest headache.

Frontline emergency physician Dr Stephen Parnis took aim at Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday morning after Victoria was thrust into its fourth lockdown since the pandemic began.

He told the ABC that Victorians are “getting tired of hearing excuses” about things that “should have happened earlier this year, at least”.

He was referring to delays in the Covid-19 vaccine rollout and the Commonwealth’s slow take-up of advice to build a fit-for-purpose quarantine facility that does not involve placing infected people in hotel rooms.

“It’s taking too long,” Dr Parnis said. “It should have happened earlier this year, at least. We need to do it right now. [New quarantine facilities] has the same urgency as vaccinating our nursing home populations.

“We know that this virus has airborne transmission. We know that the best protocols will still not be foolproof in hotels that are designed for tourists. Each state and territory will have plans for these things. But they are waiting for the checks to come from Canberra and those checks have been delayed,” Dr Parnis said.

“That is unacceptable, I think, to the medical profession, and it should be unacceptable to the wider population.”

It is a sentiment shared by Melbourne GP Dr Vyom Sharma. He told news.com.au there is nowhere near enough being done to stop leaks from HQ.

“There are no nationally consistent guidelines for infection prevention and control,” he said.

“Different states have different standards for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) — some will use simple surgical masks when near travellers, others will use N95 respirators.

“Some states have performed ventilation audits and upgrades. Others either have not, or have not reported this publicly. This inconsistency risks further instances of airborne transmission within quarantine.”

He said staff working in medi-hotels are not being protected.

“Any staff within line of sight of a returned traveller should be wearing an N95 mask. That is a no brainer, and an instant fix — source the materials, fit test all staff.

“Also, and I can only hope this is the case in all states, make vaccination mandatory for all staff, and do not allow them on site until two weeks after the second dose.”

Dr Sharma said the problem was no going to disappear and that only fit-for-purpose accommodation would prevent more outbreaks.

“More leaks are inevitable if things stay the same. Only a fool would bet otherwise.”

The problem with using hotel quarantine to house overseas arrivals from Covid-19 hotspots was raised with the Prime Minister on Thursday after Acting Victorian Premier James Merlino revealed the holdup in building an broadacre facility was at a federal level.

“We are waiting on the green light in terms of going ahead,” he said in relation to a proposal to build such a facility at Avalon or Mickleham partly funded by both state and federal governments.

Mr Morrison said he was “highly favourable” of the Victorian plan but did not make a firm commitment.

Melbourne surgeon Dr Eric Levi expressed his frustration at Victoria being forced into another lockdown because quarantine issues had not been sorted.

“Let’s learn from this. AGAIN,” he wrote on Twitter.

“One person was Covid negative on multiple swabs, spent two weeks in hotel quarantine in Adelaide. Caught Covid from the room next door. Flew back to Melbourne. Tested positive.

Now thousands of primary and secondary contacts. One person in ICU.

“More than 150 exposure locations. And a state in lockdown. Again. It’s 16 months into the pandemic. Should we not have learned this last year. Can we fix upstream quarantine problems before it causes downstream catastrophe?

“Covid is airborne. Majority of those with Covid have no symptoms. By the time they know they’re positive, they’ve shared the virus with others. We now have vaccines to reduce transmission. New variants are emerging.”

Mr Merlino said expressions of interest had been sent out on Friday for the building of a facility at either Avalon or Mickleham, 30km and 56km from the CBD respectively.

But nothing will happen without the Morrison Government’s approval. It will have the final say.

“Both sites could work and that will ultimately, because these are both Commonwealth pieces of land, be the decision of the Commonwealth,” Mr Merlino said.

COVID-19 Pandemic India 2021: an object lesson for unfocussed or complacent world leaders such as Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison

 

Makeshift funeral pyres in a public park in Delhi
IMAGE: Yahoo!News, 29 April 2021

This was Indian Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi speaking at the Virtual World Economic Forum on 28 January 2021: 

Friends, I have brought the message of confidence, positivity and hope from 1.3 billion Indians amidst these times of apprehension. There were no less difficulties before India when Corona happened. I remember what many reputed experts and top institutions in the world said in February-March-April last year. It was predicted that India would be the most affected country from corona all over the world. It was said that there would be a tsunami of corona infections in India, somebody said 700-800 million Indians would get infected while others said 2 million Indians would die. 

The world's concern for a developing country like India was also natural given the state of affairs in the world’s greatest countries with modern health infrastructure. You can imagine our frame of mind. But India did not allow itself to be demoralized. Rather India moved ahead with a proactive approach with public participation...... 

 Friends, It would not be advisable to judge India's success with that of another country. In a country which is home to 18 percent of the world population, that country has saved humanity from a big disaster by containing corona effectively. 

In the initial period of Corona, we were importing masks, PPE kits and test kits. Today, we are not only taking care of our domestic needs, but also serving the citizens of other countries by exporting these items. And today it is India which has also launched the world's largest corona vaccination program. 

 In the first phase, we are vaccinating our 30 million health and frontline workers. You can imagine the speed with which India is vaccinating its people. In just 12 days, India has vaccinated more than 2.3 million health workers. In the next few months, we will meet the vaccination target of about 300 million elderly and co-morbidity patients..... 

At the point in time that Modi made that speech India's cumulative total number of COVID-19 cases was est. 10,720,048 nationally, with 18,855 new cases recorded on the day. 

At 6:20pm on 29 April 2021 the Indian COVID-19 cumulative case total had reached 18,376,421 persons nationally, of which at least 204,832 had died and on that day 379,259 new infections were recorded. 

By 1 May the COVID-19 death toll has reached at least 208,330 in India.

Mainstream media is reporting that the Indian health system has broken down, its COVID-19 statistics are no longer reliable, the vaccination rate has fallen, people are dying in hospital corridors, on roads and in their homes and, there are so many dead that bodies are now being cremated on city streets and in public parks. 

To an outsider looking in, it appears both the Indian national and state governments took their eyes off the predicted risk of another COVID-19 infection wave. 

Since January Indian politicians appear to have focussed instead on multiple elections scheduled for March through to April 2021, and on the political party campaigning involved. 

Indian citizens on Twitter have accused Modi of being more interested in holding large political rallies and of letting pandemic health infrastructure slide. He has insisted that Twitter remove from view in India all posts critical of his government and the party he leads. 

There is an eerie similarity between the political situation in India and the lack of sustained focus on the national COVID-19 vaccination program shown by the Morrison Government since the beginning of what is mooted to be a federal election year here in Australia. 

Prime Minister Scott Morrison's personal style of governing - being in continuous election campaign mode since August 2018 - is so similar to Narendra Modi's style of governing as to raise concerns. If Morrison continues to campaign rather than govern as the global pandemic escalates he risks further spread of the highly infectious COVID-19 variants - all three of which have already entered an Australia which has only est. 2 per cent of the population partially vaccinated courtesy of his government's mismanagement.

Morrison's failure to take federal responsibility for human quarantine during a global pandemic, his refusal to create dedicated Commonwealth quarantine stations and provide air transport to repatriate Australian citizens to such stations, has (over the 16 months since the pandemic first reached our shores) left more than 36,000 Australians still stranded overseas with around 4,860 considered to be vulnerable as coronavirus travel restrictions continue.

Because Morrison has never made safe and permanent provision for national quarantine, this week he refused to allow 9,000 Australians stranded in India to return home and criminalised any attempt by them to re-enter the country. This clearly demonstrates a cold ruthlessness in his ongoing determination to force the states and territories to bear the major burden, responsibility and blame with regard to the progress of the pandemic within Australian borders - while he continues with his highly stage-managed election mode campaigning. 

NOTE:

As of 2:20am on 1 May 2021 John Hopkins University had recorded 3,169,492 deaths from COVID-19 infection world wide. While the last weekly update from the World Health Organisation (WHO) on 27 April stated that globally COVID-19 cases had increase for the 9th consecutive week and deaths for the 6th consecutive week. WHO also reported that highly infectious variants of the virus continue to spread and, as of 27 April 139 countries have reported the infectious UK variant of the virus, 87 countries the infectious South African variant and 54 countries the infectious Brazil & Japan variant. WHO reports that all these variants were confirmed as entering Australia.