Thursday, September 10, 2020

Coronavirus is extremely infectious - a cautionary tale

This is an example of how incredibly infections the coranavirus that causes COVID-19 disease is.

A worker in a Dandenong factory contracted the disease at work, he commuted to a medium size town in Gippsland daily.  The infection spread to his teenage children before any symptoms were visible.

The children travelled to school on a school bus shared by three secondary schools in or near the town.

Students and teachers at all schools subequently tested positive for COVID-19 - the schools were then closed and deep cleaned, along with the buses.  

Contract tracing and isolation contained this outbreak that started from one person.

The virus can spread easily in a confined space with people - such as a bus, classroom, dinner party, family meal or church service - without anybody showing symptoms.  It can spread by aerosol (tiny droplets suspended in the air) and people just breathing that air.  Coughs and sneezes are not required to spread it (unlike the flu).

Lockdowns are vitally important to drive large case numbers and resultant deaths down.

Social distance and masks are vitally important to stop it spreading.

State and federal Liberal MPs continually attacking Dan Andrews and the public health response measures in Victoria are compromising efforts to contain the pandemic and putting lives at risk.  

This is not the time for petty politics.

Politically motivated attacks on the considerable efforts by contact tracing teams and health care workers in Victoria is causing them distress and also angering the Victorian community.

If Australia had similar public health response measures to the United States, United Kingdom and Sweden we would have over 12,500 more deaths.


See also


No comments: