MAYORAL MINUTE NO 7/2021
REMAIN VIGILANT WITH COVID-19
Councillors,
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact us globally. First identified in December 2019 and declared a pandemic in March 2020, more and more people from countries around the world are battling this life-threatening disease.
The coronavirus has caused global economic and social disruption, and unprecedented human suffering. According to statistics from World Health Organisation, to date we have experienced more than 3.46 million confirmed deaths from COVID worldwide, with thousands still diagnosed each day.
As a nation, Australia has lost 910 people to COVID – 820 in Victoria, 56 in New South Wales, 13 in Tasmania, nine in Western Australia, five in Queensland, four in South Australia and three in the Australian Capital Territory. The Department of Health advises that more than 17 million tests have been carried out and we are fortunate that we have been able to effectively contain new outbreaks.
The situation in India, however, is very different. Last Sunday, I attended an event hosted by the Gujarati Brahmin Samaj of NSW, to raise funds for COVID-19 relief in India. Most people I spoke to had lost friends and family to this insidious disease and believed the country was overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster. Yesterday, India’s death toll from COVID-19 passed 303,000, with more than 220,000 new infections being reported at the same time. It is difficult to comprehend that 26.75 million people have become infected in India since the start of the pandemic and that at this stage, there is no end in sight to their crisis.
It will be some time before we fully understand the impacts of a global disaster of this magnitude.
But we are seeing some glimmers of hope. Brazil is second only to the USA with more than 430,000 lives lost to COVID however Serrana in south-eastern Brazil is starting to turn things around through a mass vaccination study. In a town of just over 45,000 residents, almost 95 percent of adults have received vaccinations, and for the moment they are experiencing some early promising results with infection rates falling by around 70 per cent.
I believe we will experience both national and worldwide restrictions for some time and life as we knew it pre-COVID may never fully return to what is was.
As a former medical researcher, I know what it takes work against the clock to understand the science behind a novel medical condition and develop innovative treatments. While we are pouring so much energy into treating coronavirus, still more research is needed to fully understand what is needed to manage this disease long-term, and each new strain presents fresh challenges.
In Australia, we have learned to respond quickly to new cases and contain outbreaks through restrictions, and we no doubt benefit from our geographic isolation. We have also learned that while older Australians are more likely to die from the virus, younger people aged between 20 and 30 have the most confirmed cases of any age group, and that all of us remain vulnerable.
While the world remains in crisis, for us it would be easy to slip into a kind of complacency.
But it’s not over yet by any means. Just yesterday, Melbourne announced the emergence of a new COVID cluster and a raft of restrictions are now in place in an attempt to control the spread of the outbreak.
Councillors, we as community leaders need to urge residents to continue to remain vigilant.
Preventative measures still seem to be our best defence - and these include social distancing, wearing face masks on public transport, hand washing, covering the mouth when sneezing or coughing, deep cleaning communal areas and isolation for people who may have been exposed to the disease or are symptomatic.
We cannot let our guard down if we are to be part of the global solution in the battle against COVID.
MOTION:
Accordingly I move:
1. This Mayoral Minute be received.
2. A minutes silence be observed.
3. Council investigate lighting up the Atrium in the colours of the Indian Flag in respect to the situation in India.
Dr Michelle Byrne MAYOR
