Completed my MDiv April 2019 and waited nearly a year for the once yearly graduation ceremony. Glad that the Morling College graduation ceremony happened before all the shut downs.
21 March, 2020
The weather was >30oC yesterday and photographers captured photos of
Bondi Beach being filled with people. What’s going on? Did these people think
that high temperatures will kill the virus? Anyway, the beach got shut down
today.
I’ve also been seeing ambulances on the road more frequently than usual
in the last few days. The number of people infected in Australia has exceeded
1000 today! But I think this is only the tip of the iceberg, because based on
the previous coronavirus swab testing criteria, many mild community acquired
cases have slipped through undetected.
I wonder if Australia will start shutting down states and even suburbs
soon…
Church service has been changed into online-mode!
Tried doing body combat in my room, but the room is too small and I
kept bumping into things accidentally. Got a big bruise on my arm now!
23 March, 2020
People swarmed to Centrelink due to unemployment. People seemed to be
standing very close to each other as well!
So many people also swarmed into the clinic to have flu vaccine or do
some "last minute things" in relation to their medical conditions
that I felt like I was about to have a heart attack! Fortunately, our
clinic is in the process of transitioning into telephone consultation for the
majority of our patients, especially since we already have a few
"vulnerable doctors" who are allowed to do phone consultations for
all of their patients via Medicare. It might be a good time to get pregnant!
25 March, 2020
Free coffee at McDonald's for healthcare workers! Got one today!
Normally I'd rebuke my hubby if he gets something from Mackers, but I really
gotta thank Mackers for this one!
Coles opens up special shopping hours for health workers and
firefighters, thanks Coles!
From next week onward, all patients can call their GPs for phone
consultations under Medicare. I gotta thank the government for protecting GPs
from COVID19 so the GP workforce don't get wiped out by the virus! Vaccinations
can't be done over the phone, and this strategy better enables us to do vaccinations
on healthy people and reduce people's risk of catching COVID19 when they do
come in.
I'm feeling quite worried for people working in the
ED/ICU/Anaesthetics/Respiratory medicine/Infectious disease/ENT though... May
God protect these people!
I think social distancing and home isolation where possible is a very
good thing for the human population! Not only does it make COVID19 die out, it
makes many other types of viruses die out too! And with less people out and
about, the earth actually gets a bit of a break from pollution!
I am surprised to learned that Australia has one of the highest testing
rates for COVID19 in the world! I thought many community acquired cases could
be falling through the cracks, but we are actually doing quite well! That could
be why our death rate is pretty low... Maybe countries like Italy have a much
much higher number of infected people than the numbers we have seen in the
statistics!!!
26 March, 2020
I think most doctors would have emphasised to the patients undergoing
COVID19 testing to self-isolate until their results come out, but it seems like
some patients just don’t comply! I think people booked in for COVID19 swab test
appointments should be entered into a registry and tracked by the police to
make sure they do not get out of their house until they receive their test
results via the phone! And they should get fined if they go out!
Spain has now become badly impacted by the coronavirus, and there are
people there who pretend to be dogs so they can get out and walk about! How
stupid can people get?
27 March, 2020
The US has surpassed China in cases numbers!
Today is exactly two months since I first started wearing masks at work.
It’s been a tough two months so far. There has been a significant financial impact
on GP practices in Eastwood since January, when this suburb became very quiet
due to people’s fears about the COVID19. No patients = no income for me, as I
earn a percentage of billings. If the government hadn’t allowed us to bill telephone
consult via Medicare, I would have had to seek for locum jobs. I am thankful
that the principal doctors in our clinic had been very forward thinking: quick
to secure some masks, quick to convert to telephone consultations early on, and
quick to organise flu vaccines for patients in a very systematic way.
Been sending more patients to 4Cyte pathology to get COVID19 tests.
People getting tested do not need to get out of their cars, and the results
come out very fast! Now that’s efficiency. I’m still quite amazed that our clinic
has not diagnosed any positive coronavirus cases despite the vast amount of
testings done.
28 March, 2020
Completed the COVID19 infection control training. However, I disagree
with the recommendation about the masks in there. It’s common sense that masks
do have a protective effect. I think people who have to go to places known to
have community outbreaks should be wearing masks!
These days I feel like I’m going off to war zone every day, armed with face
shield, mask and scrubs. My husband is the domestic one, and his belly is growing
bigger and bigger day by day.
29March, 2020
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison joined in with the National
Day of Prayer and Fasting Zoom Prayers.
1 April, 2020
On 18 March, I read the news about doctors being stranded on a CPD cruise
ship, including famous ED doctor Dr Fulde. I wondered what will become of them.
Well, the ship had returned to Australia. Doctors in quarantine got
placed in nice hotels but are not allowed the access the nice facilities. "My
Muscle Chef" meals are left outside their doors. The doctors talk to each
other via Whatsapp. Some doctors started doing telehealth consultations whilst
in quarantine. No maintenance staff are allowed in, so people are just washing
their clothes in sinks.
2 April, 2020
With the shutdowns, people are not allowed to leave their houses unless
it is for essential travel, or to exercise. Saw someone I know out for a
morning walk when I drove past Corunna Road on my way to work in Eastwood… Wait
a sec, Corunna? Sounds very familiar… similar to a word which we kept hearing
in the news lately!
3 April, 2020
Glad I didn't have to do this for my MDiv graduation ceremony, because
this thing they’re doing in Japan actually looks like an Asian funeral:
5 April, 2020
Taiwan has been amazing in the way it managed the COVID19 crisis.
Although researchers at John Hopkins had predicted that Taiwan would be the
second most severely impacted country due to it’s proximity to China, it is
actually one of countries with the lowest rates currently. Initially, I felt
pretty proud about the good job my home country had done.
However, now I think Taiwan is getting too arrogant about this success.
There’s no social distancing rules in place there. People in Taiwan have just
had their long weekend holidays, and people have been CROWDING to various hot
spots! This is a very worrying sign.
Meanwhile, the COVID19 curve of Australia seems to be flattening.
9 April, 2020
There is a new respiratory clinic close to where I live: The WiSE Respiratory
Clinic has been operating in Macquarie Park since 21 March. They had seen
approximately 500 patients since first opening, and only had to do physical
examination on 10-20% of the patients seen. People coming via cars arrive at
the boom gate at their designated appointment times and are let in. They wait
in the car. People who did not arrive by car just wait in a tent. There are
four consultation rooms: Two green ones where you can potentially do physical
examination on patients who you deem as low risk. Two red ones where nurses do
swabs on because you have a stronger suspicion about them having COVID19. It is
meant to be a GP clinic where interested GPs participate in the roster. You can
participate in as little as one shift only, or you can take on regular shifts. But
you can only do one four-hour shift a day as a maximum. The PPE is pretty good
there and some GPs actually think it’s safer for them to work in this clinic
compared to their own clinics. The current roster is already full until May.
The Easter Long weekend is about to begin. This song has been on my
mind for the past few weeks: Crowns
Although the coronaviruses are shaped like a crowns, there is only one
who’s worthy of the crown.
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