Why Christmas could be a super-spreading event
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What is the focus of today’s CoronaCast episode?
This is an ABC podcast. Hello, this is CoronaCast, a podcast all about the coronavirus. I'm health reporter Tegan Taylor.
And I'm physician and journalist Dr. Norman Swan. It's Friday, the fourth of September.
Norman, I want to ask you a question about something that pops up from time to time in the questions that we get from our listeners. Actually, I should say poops up from time to time. Sorry, it's about sewerage testing. Uh and it's something that we we've seen there's different jurisdictions around Australia that are testing sewerage because it's possible to detect fragments of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the virus of caused COVID-19, in sewerage, and it can just be a way of showing that it's in the community there. And we saw yesterday that they've detected viral fragments of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in a sample at Airly Beach, which is like on the Great Barrier Reef, many, many kilometres away from the room.
from the closest outbreak, how much Wait should we put on a single virus sample showing up in the poo?
Not a lot to be honest. These sewage tests are actually quite difficult to do and they come up with positive results. So I I'm not across the methodology, but I did look at this for seven thirty a few weeks ago and spoke to an expert in this area because you might remember that they found cases in Europe dating back to last March, so they said when they looked at the sewage, I think it was Barcelona. And then they found cases in Italy of sewage samples turning up positive in December, which were which would make a bit more sense, but March didn't make sense. And really the methodology in March wasn't that good in Spain and they w wasn't properly controlled. So hopefully this was properly controlled.
It's just not something that you would hang your hat on, it's viral fragments. Um they were right to set up a clinic to see whether or not there is some virus around in far north Queensland. But let's just see. One positive sample is just not something you'd go to town on.
But it can be a sentinel and it that they've used that as an opportunity to test people there just to see that it's not going under the radar there.
Yeah, it's prudent and it's another way of just checking around to see what's going. It doesn't mean people were infectious when they went to the bathroom in Airley Beach. You excrete the virus. In fact there's a study just released that shows that you excrete the virus for really quite a long time after you've been infected, much longer than people imagine, maybe up to a month. But it's not necessarily infectious virus.
And it's important to note that just because the virus exists in Seurich doesn't mean that the water is contaminated or anything like that in those areas.
How reliable are sewage tests for detecting COVID‑19 in communities?
No, no. Um th th this is highly unlikely to have been an infectious virus.
Let's uh keep travelling down the eastern seaboard a bit. Tell us what's happening in New South Wales and Victoria at the moment.
Well, let's stick with Clo Queensland. Queensland's doing well. A couple of cases yesterday reported. New South Wales is still in the double digits, low double digits yesterday, with I think three cases where they're not absolutely sure where they came from. So there's still some community spread from unknown source of circulating virus, proving pretty tenacious in New South Wales. And the question is, do they really want to get down to zero? And what are they going to do if they if they really want to get down to that? that level because Silas Barry Jiclian, the Premier of New South Wales, is really keen for the Queensland New South Wales border to open up.
What about V
Well, Vic just bounces around and we're waiting on Sunday to hear from the Premier about what his plan is for reducing restr restrictions. Looks likely that the restrictions will go on for a period of time to try and get down to much lower figures. So it's just tough stuff in Victoria. Victorians are doing it well. It's still a high proportion of the cases are people who are working in healthcare settings. hospitals and aged care.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the focus of today’s CoronaCast episode?
0:00–2:33
2
How reliable are sewage tests for detecting COVID‑19 in communities?
2:33–4:49
3
What are the current COVID‑19 case trends in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria?
4:49–7:10
4
Can large public events like the AFL Grand Final or New Year’s fireworks be held safely?
7:10–8:52
5
Why could Christmas Day become a super‑spreading event in Australia?
8:52–10:24
6
Should masks be mandated for December and early January to curb transmission?
10:24–11:16
7
Who was Australia’s first confirmed COVID‑19 case and what does it tell us about patient zero?
11:16–11:18