As at 6.30am on 20 March 2020, there have been 709 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia. There have been 144 new cases since 6.30am yesterday.
In Aus - South Aus:
Contacted my Mum, sister/her fiancé in the city last night their Uni classes have all gone online.
Mum goes to TAFE College - Hairdressing - they are still open at this stage.
The SA Govt still saying schools to stay open.
I don’t think anyone is listening to the Govt, doing their own thing as they feel is right/safe. It is all quite confusing.
Sister works at Arnotts factory, she thinks they will shut for a while as sales are down.
Her Fiancé woks in Sterilisation unit at the major public hospital - they have not been told anything at this stage.
They all have toilet paper 
I totally agree. Different strands of Influenza go around every year, causing hundreds of people to die but we don’t panic and go fist fighting over toilet paper. Same as the flu that goes around, it can harm the elderly, and people with weakened immune systems and underlying health conditions. I personally feel like there is a bigger agenda. I don’t know what, but something doesn’t seem right about all of this.
Is anyone else getting emails like these from their heads of state?
Just got this email from the Premier of our state:
Dear Sevencasper,
The situation with COVID-19 has developed rapidly in South Australia and around the world.
I know that many people are anxious about what lies ahead. I want to reassure each and every one of you that the health and wellbeing of South Australians is the government’s number one priority and we have a strong plan to help minimise and slow the spread of coronavirus in our state.
The government is focused on:
- Protecting South Australians
- Slowing the spread of the virus
- Preparing health and other services to deal with the virus
- Supporting business to keep people in jobs
We’ve set up dedicated coronavirus clinics, including in regional SA; we’ve rolled out Australia’s first drive-through testing clinic at the re-activated Repat; we’ve strengthened public health laws; and we’ve committed $350 million for an economic stimulus package to secure local jobs, keep businesses’ doors open and boost South Australia’s economy.
We will continue to roll out more initiatives in the coming weeks. We thank you for your patience as we work with the Federal Government as quickly as we can to implement measures to cushion the impact of this crisis.
I know this is a difficult time, but we are doing everything in our power to protect South Australians and ensure our state emerges stronger and more resilient on the other side.
Together, we can and will get through this.
Steven Marshall
Premier of South Australia 
A LOT more than hundreds…
Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy till you realise that the money they are giving you and spending was yours before it was theirs 
I see people are still comparing this crisis to influenza… I don’t get that at all… I see this as in addition to the normal influenza deaths… influenza just didn’t stop at the onset of CV. Some people are not going to see the severity of this situation until it hit them personally. Just look at some of the worst cases worldwide and consider the fact the the US is weeks behind those countries and is proposing no where near as many restrictions on it’s population… on top of that we are severely unprepared to handle this virus… I see now it’s gonna take a lot more American deaths for this to really sink in… this ain’t your run of the mill virus… Everything we do and say will not have any effect for weeks. We have been warned!
I stand corrected, thank you @SessionDrummer. Influenza kills thousands every single year and some of these strains of influenza have much worse symptoms than the carona virus.
Note that mortality for the various influenza viruses is less than or equal to 0.1% of cases - whereas Wuhan now looks like ~1.4% mortality (that’s 14x more deadly), with older age groups reported to be approximately 5x more at risk of death than the ~1.4% (all-ages) average. Italy is presently at ~8% mortality (no less than 80x more deadly than influenza viruses). Feelin’ lucky today ? Feelin’ “macho” ?
Estimated (unabated by precautionary measures) increase of COVID-19 doubles every ~6.2 days. 
Here is an informative recently published article:
I somewhat agree. I just can’t help but feel like something just isn’t right about the way it is all being handled. I don’t claim to have a better solution, but I don’t feel that causing world wide panic is the cure.
It’s not about saying they aren’t running concurrently, it’s comparing the mortality rates of one that happens EVERY year, to one that has happened once. It’s measuring the “response” between the two, and trying to decide if all this hype, chaos, and suffering was justified given the numbers @Pro_Vapes.
There’s no downplaying going on, but if we loose 290,000-650,000 people EVERY year, and you step back, and look at the Coronavirus, you start to wonder.
I agree… A seed was planted from the top stating the same as your earlier post and it seems to have stuck with a large amount of the population. Even now our numbers appear to be low, but it’s because this virus has been and is still being mishandled. I’d hope we can revisit these last few post in a few weeks.
COVID-19 (genetically mutating roughly every 15 days) is here to stay for good, worldwide, year-round.
No, I’m not “feeling macho” I’m just trying to say that fighting over toilet paper and other supplies is not what we need to do to combat something similar (like the flu) to what we deal with every single year.
@Rayvape Perhaps so. But, if you look around the world, who is not affected by it ?? No one’s stopping it, some countries are hit harder than others, perhaps due to their handling, or poor handling, but no one seems to have been able to use their current Influenza protocal and/or testing, and immediately ramp it up to meet the demand.
Time will tell.
Well, when I say ONCE, that’s not entirely accurate. Perhaps COVID-19 would have been more accurate. The common cold, and seasonal flu are in the Coronavirus family, and the WHO has known about CV since the 60’s so it’s not new, but this strain is new.
4 Rhinoviruses (“common cold” viruses, of which there are ~200) are corona viruses. Influenzas are not.