The big thing with the Australian Covid scene is the Covid outbreak on the cruiser ship, the coral Princess, with 100 passengers and crew infected. The ship is under lockdown, and no-one can leave the ship until testing negative. They had better hope that this resolves itself, as perhaps the ship might run out of supplies leading to a situation that was seen previously in plane crashes in remote areas. You know what could happen. And speaking of knowing what can happen, PM Albo is right off on the Covid freak out thing again, recommending that people work from home. This is but one step away from lockdowns, and we will surely see it again because the elites, at least the low-level ones, are addicted to lockdowns, which give them a sense of importance. Hopefully our friends in Big Business will not stand for this nonsense again, and use their near infinite might to change this policy. Who knows, since the higher-level elites of the World Economic Forum have their agenda too?
“Anthony Albanese's government has urged Australians to work from home if possible as Covid and influenza cases rise - despite calls from business leaders to keep the country open.
More than 300,000 Aussies are recovering from Covid, with experts predicting infections and hospitalisations will soar in the coming weeks as highly infectious dominating Omicron strains BA.4 and BA.5 rip across the country.
Employers have been warned to brace to operate on skeleton staff amid a record number of sick leave, and authorities fear national case numbers could peak to more than 100,000 a day like those seen in January if no public health action is taken.
The looming health crisis - which could leave hospitals overwhelmed - has sparked fierce debate as health groups call for greater safety measures. At the same time, businesses fear returning to remote work could undo economic progress.
While acknowledging the difficulty the situation presented to employers, Federal Health Minister Mark Butler on Tuesday said Australia should work from home 'for a little period' if they can to help curb skyrocketing infection rates.
'Yes, I think we are going to go through a difficult period and if employers feel that there is the ability to continue their operations with that sort of change for a little period then I think the chief health officers are providing good advice,' he told 3AW radio.
'But employers will have to consider that given the circumstances that they're facing now.
'There's a level of fatigue there about being told what to do. So I think chief health officers, and political leaders need to make sure that they calibrate their advice for this third wave in 2022 in a way that gets the best response and the best behavioural response from our community.'
Mr Butler's Victorian counterpart issued similar advice on Tuesday as the state tightened Covid rules, reintroducing mask mandates for schools, hospitality, retail, and early education settings.
Victorian Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas said employers should 'consider working from home arrangements that are most appropriate for their workplace and employees based on individual requirements'.
While similar advice has not yet been rolled out by leaders of NSW, QLD, and WA, Australia's top health experts last week urged workers to stay home where possible.
The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee – which counts chief medical officer Paul Kelly as a member- said employers should 'consider the feasibility of some employees working from home and support employees to take leave when sick'.
But the advice has sparked backlash from business groups, which claim state and federal governments' response to the impending Covid wave would reflect whether they were committed to moving past restrictions.
Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox, representing more than 60,000 businesses and one million employees, said struggling medical infrastructure was no reason to shut down the economy.
'We have seen before that mask and work-from-home mandates have deeply impacted the viability, growth and responsiveness of thousands of businesses. Companies have now developed different arrangements with their staff according to their mutual needs and have implemented clear Covid action plans,' Mr Willox told The Australian.
'Our major cities remain very quiet and to impose further restrictions would be a hammer blow for their recovery.'”
That is putting it mildly, business, especially small business has already been devastated by the Covid moral panic. And, we have heard it all before: hospital may be overwhelmed. Well, build new hospitals, or set up tent hospitals as used in war time M*A*S*H.