When I dropped off my son for his first day of the school year this morning, it was pretty obvious that things were different. There were kids wearing masks in the schoolyard. The talk was all about coronavirus.
Late yesterday, the NSW Government changed its advice to parents on the virus. It requested that any children who have visited China in the past two weeks should not attend school or childcare until 14 days after their departure from China.
NSW Health has a message for Australians on coronavirus. Post continues below.
But is this enough to take away the fear that parents are feeling right now?
At last count, this new coronavirus, which originated in the city of Wuhan, had killed 106 people, all in China. So far, there have been five confirmed cases of the virus in Australia, four of them in NSW. With the new school year starting this week, many Australian parents have been feeling fearful, especially those whose kids have classmates who’ve recently returned from holidays in China.
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Here's a question - how do you prove/enforce quarantine? Especially with flu like symptoms - people are going to assume they just "have a cold"; and not say anything - and I wonder if a lot of people who HAVE the virus, are not admitting to it and pretending that they just have a cold to avoid the hassle of it all?
The Flu is much more dangerous than this. Yet, year after year, people forgo flu vaccinations because they think it causes the flu. That is much more of a health risk than this virus.
Well it depends on your definitions of 'dangerous', you have to consider mortality rates as well here. One is clearly much much higher than the other
I do agree everyone should get the flu shot though