Covid 19 - - Page 588

arm79 · 03-01-2022, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GasoLane

I realise that both of you just have to have the last word, so lets just end it here please before you monopolise another page with your bickering.

Ohhhhh... I just finished my Weeties and was going to jump in and finish what I kicked off last night. No fair!!!

arm79 · 03-01-2022, 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by T3rminator

$170 for a pack of 5.....bargain....

https://www.kogan.com/au/buy/tools-n...7088650584222/

Those kits are all sold. People are obviously desperate.

We've donated one of ours to a friend who needed a test to get on his charter flight to work. Without it he would have been stood down.

If anyone is interested. Presale by Kogan for delivery from 17/1.

https://www.kogan.com/au/buy/orawell...-pack-orawell/

Pooka · 03-01-2022, 05:03 PM

What logic from the PM this morning?? You'll have to pay for them, because if we make them free, you'll pay for them anyway?? Well.. isn't this why we pay tax for? Particularly for your people's health reasons, during a once in a century pandemic? Most civilised economies have made the RAT's free for their people. But no, not our PM. There are carparks and sports clubs that need our tax money I guess?

This coming from someone who get's pretty much everything for FREE!

hayseed · 03-01-2022, 05:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pooka

What logic from the PM this morning?? You'll have to pay for them, because if we make them free, you'll pay for them anyway?? Well.. isn't this why we pay tax for? Particularly for your people's health reasons, during a once in a century pandemic? Most civilised economies have made the RAT's free for their people. But no, not our PM. There are carparks and sports clubs that need our tax money I guess?

image

This coming from someone who get's pretty much everything for FREE!

https://www.betootaadvocate.com/head...r-sick-people/

**Giant Cranium** · 03-01-2022, 05:23 PM

Last week I was desperate for one. I went to 22 places looking for one and eventually found one at a servo for $30! Lucky I ended up being negative as this commodity had me enter 23 establishments.

They should be free to stop the price gouging, the states have been paying $100 for every pcr. A rat can’t possible cost more than $1 when you buy enough for 25 million people. I’d allow one per person per day. I’d gladly do a rat every day but at even the cheapest I could find it’s unreasonable at $13

b0son · 03-01-2022, 05:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Giant Cranium

A rat can’t possible cost more than $1 when you buy enough for 25 million people.

The one my wife bought requires a UV torch to visualise the result (comes with the kit). There's no way you're getting that plus the kit itself for a dollar.

**cs123** · 03-01-2022, 05:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Giant Cranium

Last week I was desperate for one. I went to 22 places looking for one and eventually found one at a servo for $30! Lucky I ended up being negative as this commodity had me enter 23 establishments.

They should be free to stop the price gouging, the states have been paying $100 for every pcr. A rat can’t possible cost more than $1 when you buy enough for 25 million people. I’d allow one per person per day. I’d gladly do a rat every day but at even the cheapest I could find it’s unreasonable at $13

Plus you get a cool UV torch.

**Giant Cranium** · 03-01-2022, 05:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by b0son

The one my wife bought requires a UV torch to visualise the result (comes with the kit). There's no way you're getting that plus the kit itself for a dollar.

I got the kit. Worst one I’ve used. There are other ones that don’t need it

**Giant Cranium** · 03-01-2022, 05:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cs123

Plus you get a cool UV torch.

To think we were worried about plastic bags and straws a few years ago. Now there will be millions of those stupid torches.

Maybe the whole conspiracy in covid is that China had billions of torches in stock that needed selling

**FairmontGS** · 03-01-2022, 06:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Giant Cranium

To think we were worried about plastic bags and straws a few years ago. Now there will be millions of those stupid torches.

Maybe the whole conspiracy in covid is that China had billions of torches in stock that needed selling

Can I have your torch if you don't want it then?

**cs123** · 03-01-2022, 06:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FairmontGS

Can I have your torch if you don't want it then?

Are you going to play CSI?

**Giant Cranium** · 03-01-2022, 06:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FairmontGS

Can I have your torch if you don't want it then?

For $1 you can.

**FairmontGS** · 03-01-2022, 06:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Giant Cranium

For $1 you can.

Sold!

BTW, the Soul Patterson in "The Hill" is expecting a shipment tomorrow if you need them. You should know where I mean.

**Giant Cranium** · 03-01-2022, 07:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FairmontGS

Sold!

BTW, the Soul Patterson in "The Hill" is expecting a shipment tomorrow if you need them. You should know where I mean.

I’ve got a few spare now.

Found out that some places are separating the kits and putting them into individual zip lock bags. Then on selling them at an inflated price.

b0son · 03-01-2022, 08:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Giant Cranium

I’ve got a few spare now.

Found out that some places are separating the kits and putting them into individual zip lock bags. Then on selling them at an inflated price.

Illegal. Report them to the TGA.

Yellow_Festiva · 03-01-2022, 08:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Giant Cranium

I’ve got a few spare now.

Found out that some places are separating the kits and putting them into individual zip lock bags. Then on selling them at an inflated price.

I'm wondering where these came from? I was hearing on the radio that one health provider / chemist / government entity ordered many tens of thousands in bulk but they were not to be used or sold to general public as they lacked the individual packaging required legally - or something like that.

I'm talking around 40,000 units.

**FairmontGS** · 03-01-2022, 09:44 PM

Interesting that VicDanistan and The GSS have the same number of patients on ventilation but the former has only 1/3 of the icu cases of the latter. I assume that’s down to Delta.

EgoFG · 04-01-2022, 03:20 AM

It is interesting:
A few sniffles because it is winter here, but I consider the 'testing point' to be a fever lasting more than a few hours (or similar for shortness of breath etc).
This and caution - IMHO washing hands, not touching face etc is infinitely more effective than relying on someone else to wear a mask. If you have any symptoms, stay home or mask up. Admittedly I do also wear a mask, as a talisman to keep evil people away, when in places that require it.

Have not needed a test kit yet.
Have you ever been at the luggage carousel, and wished everyone would keep 3m back until they see their bag ?
Same principle here - If we all apply commonsense there are plenty of testing kits. (Said he who has about 200 roles of TP in the basement)

**FoxtrotGolfXray 5.0** · 04-01-2022, 09:57 AM

For those having difficulty finding rapid antigen test kits, I heard about this site on the radio this morning. Set up by a software engineer in Melbourne, where it is predominantly based, but the site has only been up since 4pm yesterday and has already millions of hits.

Kind of works like petrol spy where it takes input from users to update availability status. If retailers got on board, would work very well. I do note that there is nothing in the gippsland region east of suburbia.

But may be useful to some here.

findarat.com.au

slowsnake · 04-01-2022, 10:49 AM

slowsnake · 04-01-2022, 10:51 AM

I heard the test kits are going to be supplied free very soon, don't ask me to verify the origin, just take it as you read it!

**russellw** · 04-01-2022, 10:55 AM

Australia
NSW records 23,131 cases in the current period (a new record high) and the 10-day average growth rate decreases slightly to 1.1761 (from 1.1769) while the actual line is still well above the predictive trend line.

VIC records 14,020 cases in the current period (another new record high) and the 10-day average growth rate increases to 1.2319 (from 1.1691) while the actual line remains above the predictive trend.

Queensland (4,249), SA (2,552), ACT (514) and Tasmania (466) set new daily highs yesterday (3/1).

Overlay…

Week 25 in Victoria ended today with 195,913 cases to date compared to 20,155 at the same point of the 2020 outbreak and 80,017 at the same point for the NSW 2021 outbreak. Weekly case numbers see Victoria with 10x more cases than NSW in that week and overall case numbers for Victoria are up by 8,209 on last week. Note that we are comparing historical data for NSW with current data for Victoria as NSW is about 3.5 weeks ahead.

If we continue that graph up to the end of the last full week for NSW, it looks like this:

.. and here is the predictive trend graph for both NSW / Victoria based on cases since Omicron was identified which, for our purposes, will be taken as December 1st.

MITCHAY · 04-01-2022, 11:39 AM

926 in ACT. Almost double yesterday.

The positivity rates are between 20 and 30%

T3rminator · 04-01-2022, 12:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slowsnake

I heard the test kits are going to be supplied free very soon, don't ask me to verify the origin, just take it as you read it!

34 million tests ordered for Victoria. Looks like you can just go to a distribution point and pick up a test. Hope they have a system to stop people hoarding or doing unnecessary tests.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/v...29-p59kn0.html

**russellw** · 04-01-2022, 12:42 PM

Data valid as at 00:00 GMT January 3rd 2022.

37,059 new cases for Australia (a new record) and 7 deaths so the CMR is 0.453%.

NZ recorded 51 cases and 0 deaths for a CMR of 0.356%.

The UK recorded 187,414 cases and 42 deaths for a CMR of 1.109%.

494,855 new cases in the USA yesterday and 688 deaths sees CMR at 1.502%.

Other notable points:
Global cases pass 292M, the last 2M in 1 day;
Europe passes 89M cases;
Asia passes 85M cases;
North America passes 67M cases;

Greenland (319);
Mauritania (490) – the previous high (409) on 29/7/21;
Andorra (762);
French Guiana (834);
Dominican Republic (2,658) – the previous high (2,370) on 16/1/21;
Switzerland (19,620) on 31/12; and
Australia (37,059)

... recorded new highs; those in blue for the second consecutive day and those in red for a third or more consecutive day.

Israel moves above the 90th percentile for the 10 day period and no countries drops below.

We are still waiting for 1 country in Europe (Sweden) and 2 in North America (Costa Rica, Honduras) to report data for 31st December before doing the annual summary.

T3rminator · 04-01-2022, 01:08 PM

Interesting. This would indicate there isn't a shortage of stock, but rather more of a problem with the way it was communicated, which made it difficult to get the kits to the shelves to meet demand in the short term.

(Note article is a week old)

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/warehous...f-d8883b995822

Quote:

The founder of Suretest, a supplier of rapid antigen test (RAT) kits in Australia, Dr Lewis is sitting on a supply of about 75,000 kits in his warehouse in Melbourne’s inner suburb of Malvern.

He's aware pharmacies and retailers in many parts of Australia are either running out of or running low on RAT kits – particularly in Sydney and Melbourne. Yet no one’s calling him.

“In fact, we have staff calling people saying, ‘Hey, do you need to buy some?,” Dr Lewis told SBS News.

Dr Lewis is not alone. A number of major distributors in Australia have warehouses full of RAT kits.

“Earlier this week, we had around three million rapid antigen test kits in our warehouse in Sydney and we have been getting deliveries of approximately 100,000 every single day since,” Allison Rossiter, the managing director of Roche Diagnostics Australia, another major RAT supplier, told SBS News.

“There’s not a shortage in the country. There’s just a shortage on the shelves,” Ms Rossiter said.

...........

The Pharmacy Guild of Australia represents 75 per cent of the country’s 6,000 community pharmacists and, according to Professor Twomey, the lack of forewarning from government around policy changes leads to significant supply-chain issues.

**FairmontGS** · 04-01-2022, 01:48 PM

Boxloads of RATs @ Summer Hill Soul Patterson.

slowsnake · 04-01-2022, 02:00 PM

Just read this rather long article on the internet, an interview with a Dr Yager of Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Albany New York.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/art...ine-so-quickly

**Polyal** · 04-01-2022, 02:14 PM

Well after coming back from a round trip to Victoria I can certainly say for whatever reason (it boggles the mind, you would think they were burnt) that Victoria is much less compliant with masks, QR'ing and checking for vacc.

I should be happy, its less effort, but the difference is stark.

Either way we seemed to get around multiple states and not pick it up so thats a win...but its just a matter of time.

Yellow_Festiva · 04-01-2022, 03:37 PM

Just what we bloody need for the new year:

Quote:

French scientists discover new mutant Covid variant which could be more resistant to vaccines
Alarm bells are ringing after a new Covid variant was detected in France, with a renowned health expert pointing out a “worrying” sign.

Alexis Carey January 4, 2022.

The medical world is on alert yet again after a new mutant Covid-19 variant emerged in France recently.

The new strain, dubbed “variant IHU” or B. 1.640.2, was first detected in the nation last month, but is now making international headlines after catching the attention of global experts.

At least 12 cases were confirmed near the Marseilles area, and it is understood that many of those patients were hospitalised with the illness.

Variant IHU, which is believed to be linked with travel to the African nation of Cameroon, has 46 mutations which experts fear could mean it is more resistant to existing vaccines.

However, on a more positive note, the new strain does not appear to be spreading rapidly.

The variant was discovered by researchers from the The Méditerranée Infection University Hospital Institute (IHU), but is not yet under investigation by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

There is also no concrete evidence it has spread past the French border, although there are unconfirmed claims it may have already entered the UK.

.................................................. ....................

https://www.news.com.au/world/corona...68cde9292a94d6