People still without masks

[Lisafuller]

Meanwhile, masks are now completely optional in Sydney & rest of NSW. I believe it's the same in several other Oz states & territories...

NO more masks as major changes are made to NSW's coronavirus rules

No such luck here.

NZ has been particularly impressive, they are completely COVID free.

[BigginHill]

Have to decide if you prefer that type of uncertainty versus wearing masks and the Singapore way for now...

Honestly, at this point I think I'd prefer the Oz way - one year plus of constant restrictions in Singapore versus a couple of snap local restrictions in NSW & WA.

Outdoor face masks 24/7 is just a constant in-your-face reminder (literally) of our fairly heavy handed set of restrictions - any kind of multi-hour daytime outdoor activity gets badly impacted; would be nice if at least parks didn't require masks, similar to HK.

Or maybe I'm just getting fed up being stuck here for so long.

I don't envy the Melbourne lockdown though, that one was outright brutal - a similar scenario should be avoided at all costs.

[x9200]

Have to decide if you prefer that type of uncertainty versus wearing masks and the Singapore way for now...

Honestly, at this point I think I'd prefer the Oz way - one year plus of constant restrictions in Singapore versus a couple of snap local restrictions in NSW & WA.

Outdoor face masks 24/7 is just a constant in-your-face reminder (literally) of our fairly heavy handed set of restrictions - any kind of multi-hour daytime outdoor activity gets badly impacted; would be nice if at least parks didn't require masks, similar to HK.

Or maybe I'm just getting fed up being stuck here for so long.

I don't envy the Melbourne lockdown though, that one was outright brutal - a similar scenario should be avoided at all costs.

It looks like more and more long term problems are reported for people who have recovered from the virus and it is not about those who really got seriously sick but for mild or even asymptomatic cases. Not sure if this only for the British strain but I read reports where up to 33% of those mild and asymptomatic recovered had more or less severe cardiac and other problems. Australia had ++500k confirmed cases, Singapore ++60k, mostly in dormitories. Taking into account these long lasting problem, not sure if the Oz way is what I would prefer.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01283-z

[BigginHill]

Australia had ++500k confirmed cases, Singapore ++60k, mostly in dormitories.

Australia had +29k confirmed cases, less than half of SG.

(Austria <> Australia )

[x9200]

Australia had ++500k confirmed cases, Singapore ++60k, mostly in dormitories.

Australia had +29k confirmed cases, less than half of SG.

Oops. I stand corrected. This changes a lot.

[x9200]

On the other hand, not sure how would it go in the dense, highly populated urban environment of Singapore.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Australia had ++500k confirmed cases, Singapore ++60k, mostly in dormitories.

Australia had +29k confirmed cases, less than half of SG.

Oops. I stand corrected. This changes a lot.

Out of just over 60K covid infections in Singapore, 58K were in the crowded dormitory conditions for construction workers, so if one were to take out that anomaly from the statistics, then your original hypothesis still stands.
https://www.reuters.com/article/health- ... SKBN28P0E1

[BigginHill]

Well - if there's no local infection in the community, people can live as close as they'd like.

What I believe is Australia's achilles heel, is their quarantine arrangements - we've seen repeated leakage, in both Oz & NZ. Also they've got far less hotel quarantine capacity than SG.

SG seems to handle quarantine management extremely well. Also most frontliners in travel & quarantine management have been vaccinated already.

[x9200]

Australia had ++500k confirmed cases, Singapore ++60k, mostly in dormitories.

Australia had +29k confirmed cases, less than half of SG.

(Austria <> Australia )

Yes. I went to the https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries page, hit crt-F, typed aus and without paying any attention read the number to the right

[BigginHill]

Out of just over 60K covid infections in Singapore, 58K were in the crowded dormitory conditions for construction workers, so if one were to take out that anomaly from the statistics, then your original hypothesis still stands.
https://www.reuters.com/article/health- ... SKBN28P0E1

We had repeated leakage from the dorms into the wider community - also quite a few workers quarters were outside the dorms, so we need to be careful cherry picking the numbers.

Anyway, that's all in the past - it'll be interesting to see how vaccines enter the equation going forward.

[x9200]

Well - if there's no local infection in the community, people can live as close as they'd like.

But they were so perhaps the Oz way is good at present but not when there was the 1st and 2nd wave?
How do they prevented the 3rd wave? Most of EU countries have it rather bad and this is the effect of the British strain and late measures to limit the import from the UK.

[BBCDoc]

Hoping Oz and NZ can move towards total vaccine coverage to preserve their maskless lifestyle. Not 100% guarantee, but should significantly reduce the risk of future cluster transmissions, unless you get a variant that overcomes the vaccine (seems to be a few that require scrutiny arising in India).

Biggest problem will be mild COVID cases that can still infect vaccinated people. We don’t know if such variants will also trigger future thrombotic / cardiac events. If that’s the case, you’ll see inexplicable spikes in population cases that result in overwhelming ICU since there is no real countermeasures for secondary complications arising from own immune response....that can be a spectacular hypothetical shitstorm.

Btw, there’s a lot of info surrounding infection of pets and animals with C19. Don’t hear any concerns in Oz or NZ. I keep joking someone needs to test the sheep...


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[the observer]

Chile.
Vaccine leader.
Back to alarming rates of infection.

Hi Fives and pats on the back in end February.
Back to lockdown this week.

[BBCDoc]

Thanks for that info, I haven’t paid much attention to LATAM. Wonder which vaccine they used to vaccinate 6m people...


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[malcontent]

Chile is mostly using CoronaVac, also known as the Sinovac. I think that might explain a lot.