Australian Response

.......Snowcats....yikes!

Are you saying that because the AOC didn't properly check the protocols, the SA athletes have an additional 14 days quarantine?

That's not what the SMH says:

"...The cricketer’s predicament came as it emerged the South Australian government also blindsided a group of returning Olympians by alerting the Australian Olympic Committee they would have to quarantine twice if they landed in Sydney, but only after the athletes had already left Japan."

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/devastating-sa-double-quarantine-sprung-on-olympians-while-flying-home-from-tokyo-20210812-p58i85.html

Next election in Australia is May 2022, when the current approach will be decided.

Not so simple - this is a joint state/federal policy. While immigration (and therefore international travel restrictions and quarantine for international arrivals) is a federal matter, health generally (and therefore lockdowns, social distancing and other restrictions, domestic travel restrictions, Covid testing and treatment) is a state matter. But much of what the states and territories do on those matters is financed by the federal government, which gives the feds some influence. Financial support for those affected by lockdown has been mainly provided by the federal government but the states are now doing a bit more in that regard. Vaccination administration is technically a state matter but the federal government has assumed responsibility for procurement and for much of the administration. They have made enough of a hames of it that the state governments have reasserted themselves and are now involved in administration (but still not in procurement).

In short, various aspects of pandemic policy are so intertwined that in practice they all have to be negotiated, and a joint federal/state approach agreed.

This process is being managed through the "national cabinet" which is a joint meeting of the federal prime minister and the premiers/first ministers of the states and territories. (It works on a nonpartisan basis, which is fortunate for the current (Liberal) government, since 5 of the 9 members of the national cabinet are Labour premiers/chief ministers.) The national cabinet process is generally seen to have worked pretty well.

Even if there's a change of government in the federal election in May 2022, that only changes one seat on the national cabinet. The other eight members form their own view about what implications that has for them.

Since the pandemic started five of the nine members of the national cabinet have faced elections (Queensland, Tasmania, Western Australia, the Northern Territory, the Australian Capital Territory). In each case the sitting government has been returned, which they are likely to take as an affirmation of the pandemic management policies they have been pursuing. So even if there's a change of government at the next federal election, that won't necessarily be a game-changer as regards pandemic policy. State and territory heads of government will ask themselves if the federal election outcome reflects public dissatisfaction with pandemic management policies (as opposed to other election issues) and, if it does, whether the national mood about that is mirrored in their own state or territory.

Much will of course depend on whether the opposition wins the election of a platform promising a different approach to pandemic management, or basically the same approach, just more competently executed, or something in between. So far they have certainly not been calling for a different approach, but who knows what their position will be next May?

Just 21 days to stop the spread now. Good luck with that. Given the language being used by the authorities in this article, you'll need it 😱 what could possibly go wrong?

I wonder what the next step will be when these don't work? This is already pretty extreme.

"To curb movement, more restrictions will come into effect from midnight on Monday and NSW Police will launch 'Operation Stay Home' — a 21-day crackdown with increased penalties.

To assist with the operation, the NSW Police have requested an additional 500 members of the Australian Defence Force, who will join the already 300 ADF personnel on the ground.

NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said too many people were using excuses relating to exercise, the singles bubble and regional travel and they needed to close these gaps.

"I honestly think we can get NSW of lockdown quicker [with these powers]," he said.

"These are some of the strongest powers we’ve ever had in the history of the NSW Police Force, as part of the government’s strategy to get in front of the virus in the coming weeks – it's all about getting ahead of Delta, not chasing it."

As stressed continously in this thread, it depends where you are. Im in Brisbane, we did a snap week long lockdown in early August and our cases are now back at zero. So back to normal here, still have some mask restrictions for another few days but thats to be expected.

Really not a good look for any wealthy country, Canada did it earlier in the year, but equally people can't complain about problems for COVAX in getting doses for less wealthy countries.

hard to see it not being delta. every border case in last 2 weeks is delta. only 1 since june is not.

hopefully its quickly traced and we get back to normal, in the meantime 3 days getting paid to do nothing is pretty handy

everyone gets paid at least 80% of their normal wages by govt if lockdown more than 7 days. if under it business still have to pay people as normal.

obviously the govt will eventually run out of money, even printing it non stop but our debt to gdp is pretty good so a lot of reserve. and the last 9 months have been insanely good for the economy here.

Posted the headline waiting for this out of someone. COVID zero has been working in NZ for 15 months, with the odd minor hiccup. It's still a sh*te sight better than just letting it run rampant.

I'd imagine it is definitely Delta. Judging by how rampant it has been in Sydney, it could be very hard to stamp out all right. At least they're taking no chances, full lockdown. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work.

Then along comes a vaccine resistant lambda variant and you're back to square one.

Once again, it turns out Ardern did exactly the right thing in locking down for one case; which is now 4 and is delta, with a hospital ward compromised due to one of the 4 being a health care worker.

I dont get this blaming over low vacination rates, which is directly related to the difficulty in sourcing doses.