Welcome to this week’s editorial,
The editorial this week is about Covid and Us, the good folk of Eurobodalla.
It might best to start off with some facts:
Sydney Covid numbers are going ballistic
The Delta Variant spreads rapidly
It affects all ages.
It is deadly and more so with those not vaccinated.
Those facts, in themselves, should raise concerns for anyone in Sydney but it doesn’t stop there.
There is no impenetrable wall around Greater Sydney keeping them all locked down and locked in. In fact the number of folk from Greater Sydney leaving the Ring to venture into Regional NSW has proven that the Greater Sydney bubble is flimsy. But ringfencing Sydney would have immediate consequences on our vital supply lines. Memories of the time we were cut off during the bushfires comes to mind.
Everyday we hear of the Ring being breached by holiday makers wanting to go skiing, surfing or bushwalking. The police are having a hard time corralling folks who want to leave The Greater Sydney bubble for all manner of reasons including a wish “to see the sunrise”.
In Council this week we heard of Sydney contractors on major projects in the Shire who are here under exemptions. Clr Brown revealed there were Sydney people here isolating in their holiday house with the General Manager advising that this was permissible.
The bottom line is that we already have health facilities that are being pushed to their limits by way of underfunding and under resourcing. Ours is an older demographic. Being Regional we are more inclined to be relaxed as well to the rules that might be brushed aside as “City Rules”. But all it requires is just one case of Covid Delta in Eurobodalla to begin a chain of events that will have disastrous consequences to our already pressured businesses, our decimated local economy and most importantly the health and wellbeing of our community.
What can we do? We can only hope that the Delta variant remains contained in Sydney, and then resolved.
We can remain vigilant of miscreants from Sydney who are flouting the rules. They are out there, in our community. Sadly they don’t wear a WARNING facemask to alert us to beware. There are those who are here due to “exemptions” that have sadly been pushed as being loopholes.
Reasonable excuses for entering the areas where the stay at home rules apply include:
- move to a new place of residence, or between your different places of residence. This one allows those with a holiday house in the Shire to leave the Greater Sydney bubble.
- go out for medical or caring reasons, including obtaining a COVID-19 vaccination. This one has seen Greater Sydney bubble folk arrive in the Shire to receive a vaccine shot from a local doctor having booked online. And yes, it is a loophole.
The bottom line is that these are desperate times for those in Greater Sydney and if need be they will push the rules to survive, or escape. But in doing so they might just be travelling with Covid Delta in their baggage.
Here in the Eurobodalla we sit exposed like Amazonians awaiting the Conquistadores to arrive with their pox. But we can do something. We can all do our best to get vaccinated. We can all take the essential precautions of masks, scan-ins, sanitising, keeping our distance and basically not trusting anyone we don’t personally know, because at any point anyone of us might become the next Covid statistic we hear of. Let’s do our best to look out for our community, our neighbours our friends and our families and ourselves.
Stay safe, and get vaccinated if possible—lei
