Though families have felt palpable relief as restrictions have started to ease across the rest of the nation, our Victorian children are struggling more and more to follow the rules still in place.
COVID-19
Rate the Sanny (Sanitiser)
Around the Live FM office earlier today a discussion started about hand sanitiser, it’s become such a massive part of our lives and routines in 2020. I mentioned an experience I had on the weekend with a sanitiser that was quite unpleasant (even as you read I know you’re picturing your own yucky sanny experiences), it was sticky and took too long to dry, but worst of all was the smell. Thankfully it wasn’t a lingerer and within a half-hour or so I didn’t think about it any further, nor was I reminded by the smell of my own hands. The discussion this morning began to branch into discussing places where we’d wished someone had let us know that you should simply BYO at some places.
So then I decided that we need to share and learn from one another’s experiences which brings us here, launching Rate the Sanny. Tell us your Sanny experiences as you’ve been out and about using this quick form. This is isn’t designed to shame the incredible workplaces, stores, schools, or events that we frequent but to have some fun telling of the good, bad, and smelly sanitiser situations we’ve had.
We’ll update the results below, on-air, and on Instagram and Facebook regularly.
| Where did you use the Sanitiser? | Brand or Product Name if known: | Describe the type of sanitizer: | How does it feel on the hands? | Describe the smell | How effective is the product? | Other notable characteristics | Overall rating out of 10 | First Name |
| 99.9 Live FM | 3M Avagard 9250-P | Thin pink liquid. | Very runny, a little hard to contain. Only a slight burn if used with cuts/scrapes. Leaves hands feeling very clean and dries in seconds. | Like a pleasant soap mixed with a bit of alcohol. The best one I’ve smelt so far. | 70% Alcohol, no Corona on it’s watch. | Because it’s difficult to contain it can be a slip hazard. Also useful for disinfecting phones, surfaces and all manner of things. | 8/10 | Dan |
| Northreach Baptist Church | N/A | Gel | Sticky and kinda oily, took a while for my hands to dry | I can’t remember | Well I’m still alive so…I guess it’s effective? | 4/10 | Sam | |
| Woolworths Castletown | Unknown | Gel | Really quite sticky, takes a few minutes to dry. You kinda don’t want to touch anything for the first few isles. No issues with burning. | It’s pretty awful, the stickiness would be fine if it didn’t also smell so bad. Like someone has left cheap vodka in the sun. | Didn’t see, based off the smell, very effective. | Just an unpleasant time with this one. I’m sure it’s doing the job though. | 3/10 | Anonymous |
| Empire Alternacade | Unkown | Thin gel. | Wasn’t too bad for a more gel like product. Absorbed pretty quickly, no burning. | As you’d expect a bit of an alcohol smell, but not too unpleasant, nothing like some of the supermarket sanitisers I’ve used. Given that you go there to have a drink I was glad there was no lingering bad smell. | I think it said 75% | I’ve had the experience of some products etched into my memory probably for life, so it’s good to encounter one that wasn’t memorable. I guess that’s what you want in sanny, if it’s not noteworthy it’s good. | 7/10 | Cowboys Fan |
| Calvary Christian Church | Unknown | Gel | It feels quite runny but easy to get all the spots on the hands after 5 mins I felt that all the germs had 99.9% gone and I felt much more Covid safe! | Smell was a quite a strong germ killing smell and made the nose regret that it was made by God to smell things. | I don’t know exactly but it definitly did the Job | There was A LOT OF IT! Easy to use |
9/10 | Cooper |
Festival Postponed Due to COVID-19
Today, Townsville City Council announced that NAFA (North Australia Festival of Arts) and Fringe Festival will be postponed until further notice due to COVID-19. This decision comes after The Federal Governments advice on non-essential gatherings during this time. Mayor Jenny Hill said, the real issue is we don’t know what things will look like tomorrow, let alone in four weeks, so to say when we can continue these events is still up in the air. Rather than cancelling the event altogether, Council has decided to postpone it, in hopes that as soon as numbers of infections reduce, and restrictions are taken away they can proceed with booking these events and artists and put them back on the city event calendar. “NAFA is a big part of our events calendar, which brought in 4.1 million last year as far as economic impact and we saw an increase of 8.6 percent increase in accommodation in hotels and other places. So, we are trying to bring back normality as much and as soon as possible, which is why we are postponing instead of cancelling it,” Cr. Jenny Hill explained.
If you are looking for things to do because of all the event postponements, Hill said we still have beautiful parks, beaches and walks you can go on as well as Magnetic Island which is still open. In the meantime, the mayor seemed hopeful that despite everything, and despite the restrictions, Townsville’s confirmed cases are still really low, and she urges us to stay calm as we are still operating pretty normally compared to other cities and states, and to enjoy things we still can do.
Council Prepared for Coronavirus
Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill talked today on Council’s pandemic plan and business continuity plan in response to COVID-19. Mayor Hill seemed positive that Townsville is still low risk compared to other surrounding cities, with only 2 confirmed cases out of a population of 200,000. She encouraged Townsville that the council has put in a pandemic plan, but not to panic, to be cautious. Right now the only things being talked about are how the virus will affect events coming up, such as ANZAC Day and Groovin the Moo, as well as how businesses and staff in the city will be affected. Mayor Hill said “Our role is to help protect our workforce and community and maintain essential services to the city.” Their IT team has already looked into who all could possibly work from home if needed. They are looking into how to better handle blue collared workers or orange shirt workers who still need to continue working, yet how to minimize the spread of the virus if one of these workers were to contract the virus. She said they will have more clarity on public events and whether or not they will be cancelled or postponed tomorrow, Tuesday, 17th of March. As of right now public events have a more likely chance of being cancelled starting in April and going until further notice, however private events should still be able to go on, since the people going are being filtered and monitored. With talk about cancelling events, it means hotels will have last minute gaps to fill until further notice, and with Townsville having some of the nicest winter weather, Mayor Hill talked about the idea of hosting all NRL leagues and games right here in Townsville saying that she believes we would have the capacity to host them, if that is something the league wants to look into as things further progress. Mayor Hill states, “I have every faith in our local health services, and we will continue to work in full cooperation with them,” and will keep the community updated on the impacted events as soon as possible to make sure we stay informed.