We have a vaccine, with sufficient supplies to protect doctors and nurses caring for COVID-19 patients. But Queensland Health and the state’s second-largest teaching hospital, the Princess Alexandra, lacked the common sense to put those workers first in the queue. Instead, unvaccinated health workers caught the virus and it has spread.
The situation beggars belief and inspires little confidence. Australians are paying a high price for gross stupidity. Easter plans are in chaos and staff have been stood down, without JobKeeper to fall back on. Small business owners watch in desperation as their stock goes bad. The tourism industry stands to lose $1.7bn as two-thirds of Australians declare they will not travel over Easter. Locking down Brisbane will cost the economy at least $100m a day. And the accommodation sector calculates that booking cancellations over the 10-day Easter period already amount to $40m in Queensland and $9m in Brisbane alone.
Much will depend on Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s announcement on Thursday morning as to whether almost three million people in Greater Brisbane will spend Easter under lockdown. Over the NSW border, businesses and residents in the Byron area are on tenterhooks. Bluesfest 2021 has been cancelled, the day before its scheduled start.
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Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles, eager to shift the blame, says federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud should “give himself an uppercut”. Most of the public shares the sentiment — but they’d choose a different punching bag. Mr Miles complained on Wednesday that Queensland has held back the Pfizer vaccine for second doses because it had no certainty of supply from the commonwealth. That furphy won’t wash. As Health Editor Natasha Robinson wrote: “It is difficult to understand why Queensland should need to hold back any vaccine doses at all. The commonwealth has been clear from the start it was holding back 50 per cent of the vaccine doses it received from Pfizer, AstraZeneca and CSL to account for second doses. There is absolutely no need for states to stockpile.’’ Health Minister Greg Hunt’s office says state and territory governments and health ministers were given 12-week vaccination plans several weeks ago to support planning.
That said, there is a communication gap between Canberra and the states. It must be fixed, by senior bureaucrats or national cabinet. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says the problem is that the states barely receive any notice of how much vaccine they are being supplied until a couple of days before delivery, putting extra pressure on state health systems. Her Health Minister, Brad Hazzard, complained: “You get 45,000 items dumped on your front door at night and told ‘Now you should have it out by the next morning’. No one would be able to do that.” Federalism is far from perfect but logistical problems can and must be remedied for the sake of frontline medical staff and the public, whose health and livelihoods depend on it. Excuses, blame games and wars of words undermine management of the pandemic. Mr Hazzard’s demand for an apology from the federal government was puerile. And AMA president Omar Khorshid is right. It is unacceptable there are still unvaccinated doctors and nurses in public hospitals caring for COVID-19 patients or potential patients.
On the positive side, the vaccination program is gathering pace after a slow start. By Friday, 750,000 Australians will be vaccinated, three times as many as at the start of last week. At this rate, the public can only hope the Brisbane lockdown is the last of its kind the nation needs to endure. Only two new locally acquired cases were reported in Queensland, both linked to a nurse infected at the PA hospital. The low number of new cases was “encouraging”, Ms Palaszczuk said. Building on that, we hope the Premier treats the mini-outbreak in the way it deserves, by lifting the lockdown and focusing on testing and contact tracing while the region is allowed to get on with its business and enjoy Easter. A protracted lockdown at the start of school holidays is the last thing the state or nation needs. As soon as the lockdown is lifted, other states should do their part by lifting border restrictions. This week’s harsh misuse of Victoria’s traffic light entry permit system was unacceptable. Planeloads of travellers who arrived in Melbourne from Brisbane on Monday night were detained in hotel quarantine for more than 36 hours. They were told before they boarded flights they could quarantine at home before returning a negative COVID-19 test.
Amid 2.8 million deaths from 127 million infections globally, we have much to be proud of in our management of the pandemic. But this week’s setbacks show the margin for error is negligible. With a health system spanning two tiers of government, co-operation and competence, not blame shifting and playing politics, are the way to success.
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https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMilwFodHRwczovL3d3dy50aGVhdXN0cmFsaWFuLmNvbS5hdS9jb21tZW50YXJ5L2VkaXRvcmlhbHMvcmlkaWN1bG91cy1taXN0YWtlcy1sZWF2ZS1wdWJsaWMtdnVsbmVyYWJsZS10by1jb3ZpZC9uZXdzLXN0b3J5LzRjMWNlYzA4N2E1ZGI0ZjFhZmNjZTc5YzNhM2VjZjhk0gGXAWh0dHBzOi8vYW1wLnRoZWF1c3RyYWxpYW4uY29tLmF1L2NvbW1lbnRhcnkvZWRpdG9yaWFscy9yaWRpY3Vsb3VzLW1pc3Rha2VzLWxlYXZlLXB1YmxpYy12dWxuZXJhYmxlLXRvLWNvdmlkL25ld3Mtc3RvcnkvNGMxY2VjMDg3YTVkYjRmMWFmY2NlNzljM2EzZWNmOGQ?oc=5
2021-03-31 13:00:34Z
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