Two years ago COVID arrived in Australia. In that time it has changed the world but it hasn\u2019t changed the fundamentals of Australia. In a world with over 5.5 million lives lost officially and more likely closer to 15 million, Australia has witnessed hardship and tragedy but we have emerged with one of the lowest rates of loss of life, highest rates of vaccination and strongest economic recoveries in the world. Above all else we remain an essentially optimistic nation and people.
\nAustralia acted quickly. The Government called the pandemic two weeks before the World Health Organization did. Border measures were put in place, \u2018human coronavirus with pandemic potential\u2019 had been listed under the Biosecurity Act 2015, the Department of Health provided advice to doctors and Emergency Departments across the country, and then Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy convened the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC).
\nThe National Incident Centre at the Department of Health, which had been dealing with bushfires, re-focused and became the epicentre of a national approach to this new threat.\u00a0 It has been in operation for every day of the past two years. They have been guided by trusted medical professionals who have since become well known on our TV screens, offering calm, consistent and considered advice. To Brendan Murphy and the now Chief Medical Officer, Professor Paul Kelly, the country owes them so much for the steady hand they have provided and the guidance that has kept Australians largely safe when other countries have been \u2013 and continue to \u2013 lose thousands \u2013 if not hundreds of thousands of lives.
\nBut as they also warned, a pandemic doesn\u2019t just go away. It will continue to change and we must respond as needed, learning the lessons of the past two years. As we move through another challenging time with the Omicron variant, it\u2019s important to reflect on how far we have come and how well Australia as a community have navigated the pandemic.
\nAs case numbers rapidly grew around the world in 2020, efforts were directed towards keeping community transmission low to give us time to ready the health system \u2013 especially Intensive Care Units \u2013 for an influx of patients requiring ventilation.
\nClosing the border, lockdowns, telehealth, bolstering medical supplies, developing testing regimes and communicating with the public all played a part. The strategy was remarkably successful \u2013 a key factor being the engagement of the Australian people in embracing a raft of unprecedented protections. Throughout 2020, Australia\u2019s COVID-19 statistics were among the world\u2019s best and fatalities were one of the lowest in the world, as they have remained.
\nAt that time, a vaccine was a hope, rather than a certainty. Treatments were yet to be tested.
\n2021 brought more sustained community transmission but now we had more tools to combat the onslaught.
\nVaccines were developed in record time by the world\u2019s best researchers and regulators around the world \u2013 including Australia\u2019s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) \u2013 who worked tirelessly to assess their safety, quality and efficacy.
\nAustralia\u2019s vaccine rollout began in earnest \u2013 focusing first on our most vulnerable citizens including in aged care, where COVID has had the greatest impact here and around the world.\u00a0 There remains a direct correlation between hospitalisation and death from COVID-19 and age. Plus this group largely have underlying health conditions or are in palliative care.
\nTreatments became available and the Commonwealth worked with states and territories and the private hospitals to bolster health system capacity. This demonstrated the unique advantage of our health system that when needed, it could come together to meet the health needs of the Australian population \u2013 and continues to do so.
\nThe Delta variant, and now Omicron, have demanded renewed efforts and investments.
\nThe National Medical Stockpile (NMS) has been a vital supply lifeline for states and territories, aged care facilities, primary health, pharmacies and the disability sector. As of 21 January 2022, the Government has supplied 53.6 million N95 masks, 74.6 million surgical masks, 19.4 million pairs of gloves, 15.8 million isolation gowns and 10.7 million face shields.
\nThe commitment to use PCR testing as advised consistently by the medical experts, enabled Australia to track the virus and limit its spread. That decision saved thousands of lives. We could flatten the curve, minimise the spread and undertake contact tracing, which other countries didn\u2019t have the ability to do, which sadly led to mass hospitalisations and death.
\nEven so, we continued to adopt the latest technology and approve such tests to use as a screening method, knowing we would need a range of tools. The first of the rapid antigen tests were used in aged care in August last year. Omicron and its higher transmissibility has now changed the landscape coupled with a highly vaccinated population. Our approach and the advice of the medical experts has now changed. One of the key lessons in the past two years, is when circumstances change with the pandemic, our response must also change.
\nThe NMS has provided over seven million rapid antigen tests to aged care since August 2021 and tens of millions of more tests are arriving in Australia over the coming weeks.
\nThe TGA has provisionally approved five vaccines, seven treatments, and approved 66 rapid antigen tests.
\nTelehealth \u2013 now an enduring legacy \u2013 has been embraced by doctors and patients alike and been used for over 90 million consultations, providing ease of access to health services when it\u2019s been needed, minimised the potential risk of face to face contact and taken some off the strain off the health services.
\nTo date, the Australian Government has spent over $37.4 billion on the health response to COVID-19. We\u2019ve administered over 48 million COVID-19 vaccines, with over 95% of the 16+ population having had at least one dose.
\nWe have one of the highest vaccination rates in the world and have been of the first countries to commence a booster and kids 5-11 vaccination rollout.
\nWhile these are important achievements, never do I forget the people we have lost, those who were very sick, the Australians in hospitals around the country, and those struggling every day with the debilitating symptoms of long-COVID.
\nAnd nor do I forget the tremendous, sustained and professional efforts of the health workforce \u2013 the frontline that every Australian relies on in such times of crisis.
\nAbove all else, the test of our collective national achievement is that through all of the hardship we have saved over 30,000 lives compared with the OECD and over 45,000 compared with the US and UK.
\nThere has been one constant throughout the pandemic – the goodwill and the good sense of the Australian people. Their contribution has been extraordinary. As a consequence, we have one of the highest vaccination rates in the world. Thousands are lining up for boosters every week and kids are rolling up their sleeves. In the past week, the vaccination rate has seen the highest single day since the vaccination program began.
\nThese last two years have been hard and challenging, and there is more to be done, but the essential Australian spirit remains unbowed and optimistic. In so many ways, while we don\u2019t like to brag as a nation, we are perhaps better and stronger than we ever realised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two years ago COVID arrived in Australia. In that time it has changed the world but it hasn\u2019t changed the fundamentals of Australia. In a world with over 5.5 million lives lost officially and more likely closer to 15 million, Australia has witnessed hardship and tragedy but we have emerged with one of the lowest … Continue reading “Two years on, the COVID fight continues”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14595\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}