Cartoons of the Week

 

Cathy Wilcox

David Pope

David Rowe

650 South Grafton Primary School children along with their teachers and support staff enter their fifth day of self-isolation as COVID-19 infection grows in the school community

"all will be given to those who strive"
approximate translation 

At 9am on Tuesday 5 October 2021 around 650 children from Kindergarten to Year 6, along with at least 31 teachers and numerous support staff, commenced Term 4 at the 154 year old split campus South Grafton Public School, under Level 3 (regional schools) COVID-19 settings.

At around 11am that same day, almost casually, NSW Health announced that 4 cases of locally acquired COVID-19 infection had been discovered in the Clarence Valley local government area. Thus ending its resident population's community transmission free status which began on or about 29 March 2020.

By Saturday 9 October the primary school was abruptly closed for contact tracing and cleaning when it was discovered that one member of the school community had tested positive for COVID-19.

Based on NSW Health advice, all staff and students were told to self-isolate until further notice and to be tested if they developed symptoms of viral infection.

On Monday 11 October when the NSW Government opened up the state in Stage 1 of its policy of easing COVID-19 public health order restrictions and allowing the population increased mobility, South Grafton Public School staff and the parents of those 650 students waited to get the all clear to return to school.

It was also on that Monday that the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 community transmission in the Clarence Valley – specifically in Grafton postcode 2460 – had reached 14 cases over the space of the 6 days since the Delta Variant Outbreak finally reached the local government area.

On Tuesday 12 October 2021 the primary school administration was informed that additional COVID-19 cases had been confirmed within the school community and further contact tracing and cleaning needed to be undertaken, so the school remained closed.

Regretfully, to be continued......

Delta Variant Outbreak in Northern NSW in October 2021: the hubristic, elitist, city-centric world view of Perrottet will be the region's undoing

 

The NSW Delta Variant Outbreak began on 16 June 2021 and due to state government public health mismanagement quickly spread across Greater Sydney.

However, apart from infected individuals briefly visiting or driving through the seven council areas in north-east NSW within the Northern NSW Local Health District or locals returning home after being infected elsewhere, no local community transmission occurred until after the Morrison-Berejiklian-Hazzard push for people to accept that they need to ‘start living with COVID’.

The region’s first community transmissions began after 13 September 2021 – at that time these seven local government areas had been free of locally acquired community transmission for 165 days.

The Clarence Valley was the last to have Delta Variant community transmission occur when on or about 5 October it was discovered that 4 local residents in the Grafton postcode area were infected with COVID-19.

The number of infected people in the Grafton area stood at 7 by 8pm on 8 October 2021.

However, NSW Health record keeping is becoming somewhat erratic between jurisdictions and, on the basis of ‘garbage in, garbage out’ it is possible that the total may be nearer to 9 infected Clarence Valley residents.

Despite average vaccination rates across Northern NSW local government areas being markedly less than the 70% of the population 15 years of age and older set  by the National Cabinet, Premier Dominic Perrottet is ignoring the public health implications for regional areas and, for this one in particular with it high numbers of retirees in combination with its limited number of public hospitals adequately staffed and equipped to treat very ill COVID-19 patients.

With infection numbers still growing and sources of infection not yet fully explored - especially in the Clarence Valley - Perrottet has decided the business sector and budget deficits are more important than the state's most enduring resource, its people.

Like his predecessor, seemingly preferring to listen primarily to party political donors, vested business interests and the politically self-interested opinions/advice of Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook (Sydney) Scott Morrison, Perrottet has decided to open up the Northern Rivers region to Greater Sydney: 

• Domestic travel, including trips to regional NSW, will be permitted. 

 With only an oral one liner of 'no day trips' before 25 October 2021, coming from the Deputy Premier Paul Toole as a cynical figleaf.

Just 35 hours remain until trying to stop the infection spread gathering momentum becomes much harder for local communities.

Northern NSW Local Health District, media release, 9 October 2021:

To 8pm 8 October, seven new cases of COVID19 have been reported for the Northern NSW Local Health District.

Of these, three cases are in the Grafton area of Clarence Valley Local Government Area (LGA), two are in the Kyogle LGA, one in the Lismore LGA and one case is in the Ballina LGA,

One of the Kyogle cases is a household contact of a positive case. The Ballina case and Lismore case are linked to known clusters.

Investigations into the sources of the other infections is underway. Contact tracing is underway to determine any venues of concern, and public health teams have begun contacting a number of close contacts associated with these cases.

Four cases are being cared for in hospital, all are in a stable condition.

To 8pm 8 October, there have now been 64 total cases confirmed in Northern NSW since 16 June when the current Delta outbreak in Sydney began.

We would like to remind the community of expanded clinic hours available in Grafton this weekend:

Grafton Base Hospital, 184 Arthur Street, Grafton, open seven days. Saturday and Sunday 7am – 7pm.

Stay-at-home orders are in place for Lismore LGA, Casino, and Kyogle LGA until 11 October due to an increased COVID-19 public health risk.

Everyone in these areas must stay at home unless it is for an essential reason, which includes shopping for food, medical care, getting vaccinated, compassionate needs, exercise and work or tertiary education if you can’t work or study at home.

Anyone with even the slightest symptoms should get tested as soon as they feel unwell. There are more than 500 COVID-19 testing locations across NSW. Find a clinic at COVID-19 testing clinics or contact your GP.

We encourage people to get vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as they are able to. Find available bookings at the Australian Government’s COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic Finder (previously eligibility checker), or you can also call Health Direct on 1800 571 155 for assistance to book.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WHOLE OF NEW SOUTH WALES COVID-19 STATUS

NSW Health, media release, excerpt, 9 October 2021:

NSW recorded 580 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.

One new case was acquired overseas in the same period, bringing the total number of cases in NSW since the beginning of the pandemic to 68,057.

Sadly, NSW Health is reporting the deaths of eleven people who had COVID-19 – three women and eight men. One person was in their 50s, one was in their 60s, four people were in their 70s, two were in their 80s, and three were in their 90s.

Five people were from south-western Sydney, three were from western Sydney, and three were from south-eastern Sydney.

Four were not vaccinated, three had received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, and four had received one dose.

A woman in her 80s died at the Hardi Guildford Aged Care Facility, where she acquired her infection. This is the sixth death associated with an outbreak at the facility.

A woman in her 80s died at the Allity Beechwood Aged Care Facility, where she acquired her infection. This is the fifth death associated with an outbreak at this facility.

NSW Health extends its sincere condolences to their loved ones.

There have been 425 COVID-19 related deaths in NSW since 16 June 2021 and 481 in total since the start of the pandemic.

There have been 62,384 locally acquired cases reported since 16 June 2021, when the first case in this outbreak was reported.

There are currently 812 COVID-19 cases admitted to hospital, with 163 people in intensive care, 75 of whom require ventilation.

There were 79,894 COVID-19 tests reported to 8pm last night, compared with the previous day’s total of 103,388…….

To 11.59pm on Thursday 7 October across NSW, 89.8 per cent of the over-16 population had received a first dose COVID-19 vaccine, and 71.5 per cent were fully vaccinated.

Of the 580 locally acquired cases reported to 8pm last night, 130 are from South Western Sydney Local Health District (LHD), 98 are from Hunter New England LHD, 74 are from Western Sydney LHD, 54 are from Illawarra Shoalhaven LHD, 42 are from Sydney LHD, 42 are from South Eastern Sydney LHD, 41 are from Nepean Blue Mountains LHD, 31 are from Central Coast LHD, 20 are from Southern NSW LHD, 17 are from Western NSW LHD, nine are from Northern Sydney LHD, seven are from Northern NSW LHD, six are from Far West LHD, four are in correctional settings and five are yet to be assigned to an LHD.

NSW Health's ongoing sewage surveillance program has detected fragments of the virus that causes COVID-19 in sewage samples collected from across NSW, including West Wyalong in the Riverina region, Dungog in the Hunter New England region, Crescent Head on the mid north coast, Ballina on the far north coast, Gulargambone in western NSW and Merimbula in southern NSW.

Everyone in these areas is urged to monitor for the onset of symptoms, and if they appear, to immediately be tested and isolate until a negative result is received…...

In the last 22 days up to 5 October 2021 the Northern NSW Local Health District covering the 7 local government areas in north-east NSW has had 41 cases COVID-19 community transmission after its resident populations being COVID free for 165 days

 

In the last 22 days up to 8pm on 5 October 2021 the Northern NSW Local Health District covering the 7 local government areas in north-east New South Wales - from the southern boundary of the Clarence Valley to the NSW-Queensland border - has had 41 confirmed cases of COVID-19 community transmission.

Before that the region’s resident populations had been COVID free for 165 days.

However, by Day 107 of the far north coast’s COVID free period its fate had already been sealed. Because the NSW Coalition Government’s COVID-19 Crisis Committee, urged on by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, had already decided that all of New South Wales should learn to ‘live with COVID’.

It was not only then NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, then Deputy Premier John Barilaro and Health Minister Brad Hazzard making this political decision to listen to big business & a bullying prime minister rather than to wiser heads.

Then Treasurer and current NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet, Services NSW Minister Victor Dominello, and Tourism Minister Stuart Ayres were part of the crisis committee and were apparenently gung-ho for the regions to be stripped of full public health protections (PHPs) before resident populations 15 years & over were 70% fully vaccinated.

So that inevitably the local health district in which I live which had zero community transmission became seeded with the SARS-Cov-2 Delta Variant under the Lib-Nats state government’s learning to ‘live with COVID’ plan.

NSW Health, Northern NSW Local Health District, media release, 6 October 2021:

There have been three cases of COVID-19 reported in the Northern NSW Local Health District to 8pm yesterday, Tuesday 5 October.

Two cases are in the Casino area of Richmond Valley Local Government Area (LGA), and one case is in the Lismore LGA.

All three are household contacts of confirmed cases. Two of the cases had been self-isolating and one had been infectious in the community for 24 hours.

Two cases are now being cared for in hospital, and both are in a stable condition.

To 8pm 5 October, there have now been 41 total cases confirmed in Northern NSW since 16 June when the current Delta outbreak in Sydney began.

NNSWLHD can confirm there have now also been four positive cases in the Grafton area reported since 8pm.

These case are under investigation, and will be reported in NSW Health’s figures tomorrow.

Expanded clinics will be available in Grafton this week:

Grafton Base Hospital, 184 Arthur Street, Grafton, open seven days. Today, Wednesday 6 October until 7.30pm. Thursday and Friday 7am – 7pm.

Sullivan Nicolaides Pathology Grafton South, Coles Complex, Shop 9, 4 Bent Street, South Grafton. Open 7am – 4pm Thursday and Friday. Please note – this clinic will only be providing COVID-19 testing over these days, no general pathology.

Further dates and times for these testing clinics will be advised in due course.

For the week of 19-25 September there were 10,562 tests conducted among local residents of Northern NSW Local Health District. In the four days to 30th September a further 6,372 tests were conducted.

Thank you to everyone who has come forward for testing. If you have had a negative test and then develop new symptoms at a later date, please come and get another test. It’s important that we keep testing numbers as high as possible, to identify any new cases among our community.

Investigations are continuing into any possible public venues of concern relating to confirmed cases, and more information will be provided as soon as it’s available.

NSW Health does not disclose details about venues unless there is a public health reason to do so.

Stay-at-home orders are in place for Lismore LGA, Casino, and Kyogle LGA until 11 October due to an increased COVID-19 public health risk.

Everyone in these areas must stay at home unless it is for an essential reason, which includes shopping for food, medical care, getting vaccinated, compassionate needs, exercise and work or tertiary education if you can’t work or study at home.

Anyone with even the slightest symptoms should get tested as soon as they feel unwell. There are more than 500 COVID-19 testing locations across NSW. Find a clinic at COVID-19 testing clinics or contact your GP.

We encourage people to get vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as they are able to. Find available bookings at the Australian Government’s COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic Finder (previously eligibility checker), or you can also call Health Direct on 1800 571 155 for assistance to book.

NSW Coalition Government admits vaccination certificates may not be available by 11 October 2021 & concerns grow that QR code monitoring may be removed from state's public health response and COVID-19 case tracing & contacting downgraded to an ineffectual level

 

YASMIN CATLEY MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE AND DIGITAL

NO VAX APP FOR ROADMAP, BEREJIKLIAN GOVERNMENT ADMITS

The NSW Government has admitted that the vaccination certificate feature on the Service NSW app will not be ready when the state reopens on 11 October.

Meanwhile, the Minister for Customer Service and Digital, Victor Dominello also told 7:30 he is planning on withdrawing mandatory QR codes completely come December – which received a no comment from the Chief Health Officer, Dr Kerry Chant at a Parliamentary hearing yesterday.

VICTOR DOMINELLO: I think the QR codes should be retired once we get to the 90 per cent mark.
[ABC 7:30, WEDNESDAY, 29 SEPTEMBER 2021]

The delay of this app is causing significant anxiety amongst the business community who face having to police the vaccination status of customers.

QR codes and the check-in system have been vital to testing, tracing, isolation & quarantine (TTIQ), a cornerstone of the National Roadmap and Doherty Institute Modelling.

The Committee also heard that the Government is still considering what TTIQ looks like at 70 per cent, with reopening only a week away.

Minister Dominello also indicated future measures may increasingly rely on automated text messages and questionnaires, which the committee was told yielded lower compliance - with a response rate of as little as 40-50 per cent.

NSW Labor is concerned without a working app and a clear approach to contact tracing, public confidence in the reopening will be seriously undermined. We are seeking assurances that this will not place an additional burden on hospital capacity.

Shadow Minister for Customer Service and Digital, Yasmin Catley MP said businesses are desperate for certainty and are deeply concerned the failure of the app to be ready for reopening will place staff in the difficult position of enforcing compliance with the health orders.

“The Minister has form in letting business down consistently throughout this pandemic and the delay of the app is just another instance of the Minister failing to provide certainty”, Ms Catley said.

“This is the Minister that botched the rollout of critical financial support to businesses right across this state, leaving business waiting weeks for applications to be processed while their income completely dried up.

“The NSW Government needs to step up to the plate and provide the business community with clear answers on if the app will be ready on 11 October, and if not when can business owners expect the app to be available?” Ms Catley said.

DATE: FRIDAY, 1 OCTOBER 2021

Copyright © 2021 NSW Labor SPLP Media, All rights reserved.

COVID-19 State of Play in North-East NSW: Venues of Concern growing & a Sydney-centric vaccination myth annoys

 

Echo Net Daily, 2 October 2021:

The Northern NSW Local Health District has been notified of new venues of concern associated with confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the region.

NNSWLHD says that a anyone who attended the following venues at the times listed are considered a casual contact and must get tested and isolate until they get a negative result.

NNSWLHD Venues of Concern, Saturday October updated 9.18pm.

If you are directed to get tested for COVID-19 or self-isolate at any time, you must follow the rules given to you by Health staff, whether or not the venue or exposure setting is listed on the NSW Health website.

Echo NetDaily, 29 September 2021:

Byron’s vaccination coverage is 20 per cent below the rest of NSW and it needs to lift – quickly. Political and health leaders suggest ‘vaccine hesitancy’ as the problem, but the main issue has been vaccine supply. With thousands of Byron Shire adults not due to receive a first COVID vaccine dose until October, creative solutions – and a greater sense of urgency – are needed to get us ahead of what’s coming.

The recent Shire-wide lockdown resulted from just one Sydney traveller visiting a few Byron shops on her trip from Ballina Airport to Kingscliff. The travel was permitted, but the retail therapy was not. The traveller later tested positive for COVID, and within hours more than 100,000 of us were back in a snap seven-day lockdown.

The whiplash-inducing hard shift from ‘mostly-open’ to ‘mostly-closed’ is a regional NSW peculiarity designed to protect places like ours that have been largely COVID-free, but which also have below-average vaccination rates. Byron Shire has the second lowest first dose vaccination rate in NSW today – an extraordinary 20 per cent below the State average.

If you watched any of the daily COVID updates recently, Byron’s low vaccination rate – and what that means for the October statewide reopening plans and regional travel – is finally getting attention in Sydney. But there’s something a bit off. The questions lead with an assumption of why the vaccination rate is trailing; an assumption that respondents are too willing to reaffirm.

Take this example from 22 September:

Interviewer: ‘What’s the strategy to get the vaccination rate up in Byron Bay, Mullumbimby…?’

NSW Premier: ‘Well as I said, unfortunately there are pockets of resistance… And even if you don’t care about the safety of those around you… And even if you don’t care about your community, I think people are looking forward to doing things we haven’t been able to do for a while, and I think that’s a big incentive. But as we know there will always be pockets of resistance, but we are trying to identify those communities that legitimately have lower vaccination rates, it might be access issues… and as you know we have done incredibly well as a state considering the lumpiness of the supply we have received… it’s been a challenge for us to make sure it gets to the right places… I know there are some regional communities that are slightly behind the state average and we are trying to increase those as quickly as we can.’

Wow. That’s as unsubtle as it gets. Let me translate: There are a handful of places with legitimately low vaccination rates (problems the government is working hard to fix!), and then there are places like Byron where the rate is illegitimately low owing to the selfish (in)actions of some…..

Covid-19 infection & public health order update for north-east New South Wales, 2 October 2021

NSW Health-NNSWLHD, media releases, 2 October 2021:

Northern NSW Local Health District has been notified of 12 new cases of COVID-19.

Eight new cases were confirmed in residents of Northern NSW Local Health District to 8pm 1 October.

Six cases are from Lismore, one in Kyogle and one in Casino. All cases are linked to the Kyogle cluster.

A further four cases were confirmed overnight, three in the Tweed area and one in Kyogle. These four cases will be included in NSW Health’s official reporting tomorrow.

 ⚠ The total number of active cases in Northern NSW is 26.

Northern NSW Local Health District has been notified of new venues of concern associated with confirmed cases.

Anyone who attended the following venues at the times listed is considered a casual contact and must get tested and isolate until they get a negative result.

• Kyogle: Caltex, Summerland Way, Tuesday 28 September, 5:45pm to 6:00pm

• Wollongbar : Wollongbar Tavern, 53 Simpson Avenue, Monday, 27 September, 5:25am to 8:00 am

If you are directed to get tested for COVID 19 or self-isolate at any time, you must follow the rules given to you by Health staff, whether or not the venue or exposure setting is listed on the NSW Health website.

Contact tracing and investigations are continuing, and information about new public exposure venues will be provided as soon as it is available.

❗ Sewage surveillance has detected fragments of the COVID-19 virus in samples taken from the South Grafton sewage treatment plant on 30 September. This plant serves around 6,300 people. This is the fourth detection in the past 10 days in this area.

There are no known cases in the Grafton or Clarence Valley region, and we strongly urge residents and visitors to be vigilant for symptoms and please get tested as soon as they feel unwell. It’s important to isolate while waiting for your test result, and follow the instructions given to you by Health staff.

Sewage surveillance has also detected fragments of the virus in samples taken from the East and South Lismore sewage treatment plants on 29 September.

There are active cases in the areas served by these treatment plants, and we continue to encourage anyone in the Lismore area with even the mildest of symptoms to get tested.

Symptoms of COVID-19 can include a runny nose, scratchy or sore throat, cough, fever, shortness of breath, headache, tiredness, loss of taste or smell, nausea, diarrhoea or muscle aches.

⚠ Stay-at-home orders remain in place for Casino and Kyogle until 11 October due to an increased COVID-19 public health risk.

Everyone in these areas must stay at home unless it is for an essential reason, which includes shopping for food, medical care, getting vaccinated, compassionate needs, exercise and work or tertiary education if you can’t work or study at home.

There are more than 500 COVID-19 testing locations across NSW. Find a clinic at: https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/health-and-wellbeing/clinics or contact your GP.

We encourage our community to get vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as they are able to. Find available bookings at the Commonwealth Government’s COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic Finder: https://www.health.gov.au/.../covid-19-vaccine-clinic-finder (previously eligibility checker), or you can also call Health Direct on 1800 571 155 for assistance to book.

Fifty-one year-old Gladys Berejiklian resigns as NSW Premier & Liberal MLA for Willoughby on 1 October 2021 - around 18 months short of the end of her second term in office

Gladys Berejiklian, 1 October 2021
IMAGE: Daily Mail Australia

At approximately 1.13pm on 1 October 2021 Gladys Berejiklian resigned during her second term as NSW Premier and in her 19th year as Liberal MLA for the Sydney electorate of Willoughby.

In one stroke she has walked away from the ongoing disaster of her gross mismanagement of the NSW public health response to the SARS-CoV-2 Delta Variant Outbreak and, by leaving politics completely, has to some measure inoculated herself against any potentially negative findings of a NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption public inquiry.

NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), MediaCentre, 1 October 2021:

Further Operation Keppel public inquiry

Friday 1 October 2021

The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) will hold a further public inquiry in Operation Keppel from 10:00 am on Monday 18 October 2021.

The Commission is investigating whether, between 2012 and 2018, the Hon Gladys Berejiklian MP engaged in conduct that:

• constituted or involved a breach of public trust by exercising public functions in circumstances where she was in a position of conflict between her public duties and her private interest as a person who was in a personal relationship with the then NSW Member of Parliament, Mr Daryl Maguire, in connection with: grant funding promised and/or awarded to the Australian Clay Target Association Inc in 2016/2017; and grant funding promised and/or awarded to the Riverina Conservatorium of Music in Wagga Wagga in 2018; and/or

• constituted or involved the partial exercise of any of her official functions, in connection with: grant funding promised and/or awarded to the Australian Clay Target Association Inc in 2016/2017; grant funding promised and/or awarded to the Riverina Conservatorium of Music in Wagga Wagga in 2018; and/or

• constituted or involved the dishonest or partial exercise of any of her official functions and/or a breach of public trust by refusing to exercise her duty pursuant to section 11 of the Independent Commission Against Corruption Act 1988 to report any matter that she suspected on reasonable grounds concerned or may concern corrupt conduct in relation to the conduct of Mr Daryl Maguire; and/or

• was liable to allow or encourage the occurrence of corrupt conduct by Mr Maguire.

The Commission is also investigating whether, between 2012 and August 2018, Mr Maguire engaged in conduct that involved a breach of public trust by using his public office, involving his duties as a member of the NSW Parliament, and the use of parliamentary resources, to improperly gain a benefit for himself, G8wayInternational/G8wayInternational Pty Ltd and associated persons.

The general scope and purpose of the public inquiry is to gather evidence relevant to the matters being investigated for the purpose of determining the matters referred to in section 13(2) of the ICAC Act.

The Commission has decided that public inquiries will be conducted, as far as practicable, remotely via audio visual link (AVL) until there is a change in the current COVID-19 public health orders. Only those whose presence on Commission premises is deemed essential for the effective conduct of the public inquiry will be permitted on-site. Members of the public and the media will therefore not be permitted to attend the premises for the course of the Operation Keppel public inquiry. There is further information in the public inquiry protocol on the Commission’s website.

MS Teams is the AVL technology that the Commission will use to conduct the public inquiry remotely. The Commission will live stream the MS Teams proceedings via its website, www.icac.nsw.gov.au. The Commission will also upload exhibits (provided they are not subject to non-publication orders), transcripts and witness lists to the website. Updates will be provided throughout the course of the inquiry via the ICAC Twitter account (@nswicac).

Assistant Commissioner the Hon Ruth McColl AO SC will preside at the public inquiry. Counsel Assisting the Commission will be Mr Scott Robertson and Mr Alex Brown.

It is expected that the inquiry will continue for approximately 10 days. A witness list for the first week of the public inquiry will be published closer to the commencement date of the proceedings, along with further information about how to access the live stream. The Commission will also advise if there are changes to the public health orders that may affect the conduct of the inquiry.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AT9kLQNOE8

This is the condition in which Gladys Berejiklian has left the state and the north-east New South Wales region.....

NSW Health recorded 864 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm 30.09.21 spread out across at least 15 local health districts from NSW-Vic border to NSW-Qld border. 15 COVID-19 related deaths were announced. One third of the dead were fully vaccinated...1/4 pic.twitter.com/gl57zoWVw2

— no_filter_Yamba (@no_filter_Yamba) October 1, 2021

 

Frontline medical staff not happy with Morrison Government's lack of thought or preparation behind the national plan to re-open Australia

 

Nurses union the ANMF calls on Australian Prime Minister Morrison to address critical concerns before triggering national plan to re-open Australia

ANMF Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation Journal, 1 September 2021:

The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) has written to Prime Minister Scott Morrison to outline its significant concerns regarding the government’s national plan to re-open Australia and transition the country’s pandemic response based on the Doherty Institute’s COVID-19 modelling and the Commonwealth Department of Treasury’s economic analysis.

In the letter, the union requests that more detailed modelling and analysis be undertaken and considered by National Cabinet before it takes any further steps to re-open the country.

“As you are aware, the nursing and midwifery workforces, as the largest and best distributed components of the health workforce, are fundamental to ensuring that the Australian community remains safe and healthy both during COVID outbreaks and as we seek to gradually move the nation beyond the current ‘suppression phase’ of the COVID-19 response,” ANMF Federal Secretary Annie Butler wrote.

“This means that the impacts of re-opening and transitioning the country’s national COVID-19 response prematurely without adequate planning or sufficient resourcing will disproportionately affect nurses and midwives and their capacity for ongoing delivery of quality care.”

Ms Butler argued the Doherty modelling, which currently underpins the government’s proposed re-opening plan, fails to take into account all the factors affecting this capacity.

Specifically, the ANMF has called on the government to consider the following factors before re-opening:

1. Current health system demand capacity, including expansion capacity, both critical care and general, and management of non COVID health demand

2. Assessment of safe vaccination targets, which include the entire population, not just those currently eligible

3. Vaccination rates needed for vulnerable populations, including those aged over 70 and other high-risk groups

4. Management of anticipated vaccination rollout channels for boosters, once recommended

5. The impact of the Delta and future variants, including on children, particularly in the context of uncontrolled community transmission, as is currently occurring in NSW

6. How the test-trace-isolate-quarantine TTIQ workforce will be fully resourced and maintained without impacting the nursing and midwifery workforces

7. How to ensure all communities across Australia will have equal access to safe healthcare as we progress through the pandemic

Like all Australians, Ms Butler said the ANMF was keen to transition the country’s COVID-19 response from one of strict virus suppression to more relaxed restrictions. However, it cannot happen without first addressing critical concerns, she warned.

“We cannot overstate the importance of ensuring that we do not make this transition until we can guarantee that vaccination rates and appropriate public health measures are sufficient to allow the health and aged care systems and their workforces to be able to continue to deliver best practice care to all those requiring it.”

AMA calls for stronger quarantine model – a need to move away from temporary measures and introduce permanent quarantine solutions

Australian Medical Association, 2 September 2021:

The AMA has called for an urgent stocktake of potential quarantine sites around Australia in a submission to the Chair of National Review of Hotel Quarantine, Ms Jane Halton AO PSM. Ms Halton invited the AMA to provide this submission as part of her further review into Australia’s quarantine arrangements.

Australia’s current hotel quarantine has resulted in over 30 breaches, one of which has led to the third wave of infections. Australia needs to move away from this temporary measure and introduce permanent quarantine solutions.

The AMA has welcomed the announcement of the three quarantine facilities announced in recent weeks, however the facilities will take months to complete. The AMA is also concerned about the lack of engagement with the local medical communities in the vicinity of these facilities.

The submission also calls for further examination of the options for expanding home quarantine for fully vaccinated people arriving from lower risk locations. This would alleviate some of the burden on quarantine facilities.

AMA President Dr Omar Khorshid will meet with Ms Halton in the coming weeks to further detail the AMA’s priorities in ensuring Australia has a robust quarantine regime. Underpinning the AMA’s position are two goals: To prevent COVID-19 originating overseas from spreading through Australia, and to ensure that Australians can continue to return here from overseas, ideally in increased numbers.

National Cabinet needs to look at the whole Australian hospital system, not just ICU beds

Doorstop interview, 2 September 2021:

DR OMAR KHORSHID: The AMA is today calling on National Cabinet to look at the capacity of our hospital system, not just ICU beds, but our whole hospital system, to make sure that once we open up, we don’t see a disastrous reduction in the care available to Australians who are sick simply as a result of increase in the risk of COVID in the community from opening up. And of the hospitals having to pivot towards treating COVID without treating all those other conditions that people currently present with.

The reality in public hospitals in Australia right now is that they are full, they are always full, and there are ambulances parked outside, too many of them as we speak, simply because the hospitals don't have the capacity to look after the healthcare needs of Australians. That's before COVID. And we know that as soon as COVID comes into the community, hospitals will have to stop doing elective surgery. They will have to turn their ICUs into COVID ICUs. And that means people not being able to access lifesaving cancer surgery, lifesaving heart surgery, because the ICUs will have very sick COVID patients to look after, patients who stay in the ICUs for weeks and weeks.

Now, we are not worried that our system will fail to look after COVID patients. We think the planning has been done, but we are worried about Australians who get heart attacks, who need surgery, who have a sore hip, who are going to miss out on care if we don't get the planning right. Our hospitals are starting from a position of being completely overloaded, and adding more to that load is only going to make things worse. So we're asking National Cabinet to take that into account with their planning. Is it right to open up at 70 or 80 percent if the hospitals are going to predictably fail within weeks? Which will, of course, send us straight back into lockdowns, which would be extremely disappointing for all Australians or is there a better way to plan to use our system, to make sure that the resources that we do have, limited as they are, can be best pointed towards the most efficient care possible?

Now, we're asking for planning not just around ICU beds, but around all the processes, the staffing, how we deal with COVID in hospitals, how we run our primary healthcare sector, so that we've got the best chance that when Australia does open up to the rest of the world, when we do open up our interstate borders, that we have a healthcare system available to everybody who needs it. It’s a pretty simple ask, but it's a complex task. And we believe that we must use the available weeks and months that we have, to get that planning done so that the healthcare system doesn't become the handbrake on Australia's economy and our ability to open up…...