mstateglfr 

Somehow my initial response to your post was deleted

When you say 'back to normal', are you saying the Tasmanian economy is back to what it was precovid?
Thats a lot of travel and tourism to fully bounce back so quickly.

Being a remote island that closes its borders is a strong plan for reducing the spread.

Trevtassie

All of those cases are imported cases from returned travelers, who are quarantined in government run facilities, so no there aren't 10 undiagnosed cases per positive. No Community transmission. Even during winter we reduced cases to zero in most of our states.

CliffordK

Vigilance is key. Expect the disease to try to escape, and at last test symptomatic individuals with severe respiratory illness.

There have been places that have been dipping sewage to monitor large groups for infections. Often done at universities at either a building level, or campus level. But, it should also be able to be done city wide.

Trevtassie

Yep, sewage testing is being done in all the large cities already.

Hondo Gravel

San Antonio has had a decrease in cases but that could spike again. The schools are open but very few students are going and opting for remote learning. The frontline medical people are receiving the first shots of vaccine. See what happens.

2cam16

Meanwhile, over here in California.....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...pitalizations/

Our county FINALLY shut-down or will starting tomorrow midnight. News reports the other day had people coming over from different counties to do their business and fun here since we were the only ones left open. And of course to spread their cooties. No doh, Sherlock. Uhhh that's why you shut down at the same time as everyone else. SMH

Machka 

Where and when was this?

Machka 

Locals were given incentives to travel. We got one of the incentives!! We travelled.

The borders are open again, tourists are here, and so far, we're now over 4 months without a locally transmitted case. We had 4 cases come in, but they were in quarantine and were immediately transferred to a special ward in the hospital.

I still expect we'll see a locally transmitted case in January or February, but we'll deal with it.

Meanwhile, if you were walking around downtown or taking the bus or whatever, you'd never know there was a pandemic around.

Oldairhead 

Well, the numbers are there for all to see. You had 43 new cases on Sunday (Dec 20) alone! That is down from the nearly 700 new cases a day that you had back in May.

https://www.health.gov.au/news/healt...d-case-numbers

Now you've also got multiple cases of the new and more contagious strain from the UK. It may be a little early to be taking your victory lap.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...-idUSKBN28U0WX

Don't get me wrong, so far your country is doing better than most. Maybe the population is simply more obedient or controllable, but you cannot stay in lockdown forever! You also have the advantage of being an isolated land mass and it's summertime. I suspect that when you go back into winter or you lift your travel restrictions that your nubers will spike again.

Stay safe out there!

Machka 

We are experiencing isolated spikes in certain parts of the country at different times. When that happens, the specific area locks down. Right now, there are spots in the Sydney area which are locked down because of the recent spike but the rest of the country is open.

Here in Tasmania, it has been over 4 months without a local transmission. We did get 4 cases in from India but they were immediately quarantined.

Hondo Gravel

Tasmania will be back in the swing of things when this guy is around

Machka 

Victoria had a big spike of cases in July/August ... I presume that's what you're referring to when you say "May". On one day, they reached 700 cases, but the rest of the days were less than that.
https://www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/victoria...-covid-19-data

Right now, NSW is having a spike however not all the cases are locally acquired. A number come from overseas and because Sydney's airport is the most common place people will come, it will get people with COVID.
https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/find...about-covid-19


Elsewhere I said, "Meanwhile, if you were walking around downtown or taking the bus or whatever, you'd never know there was a pandemic around." and that's not entirely true. There is hand sanitiser at the doors of most stores and distancing is encouraged. There's a testing station just up the road, and there are announcements over the loudspeaker systems of larger stores about maintaining distance.

Other than that, everything is open and operating as it is throughout most of Australia. For now.