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All 10 local government areas in New South Wales with double-dose Covid vaccination rates below 50% are regional, with six of the 10 currently affected by outbreaks.
This could leave those areas at greater risk of adverse effects on health infrastructure and businesses in these areas, as NSW plans to reopen.
The LGAs include Byron, Lismore and the Richmond Valley, all affected by the outbreak in the Northern Rivers region, and Muswellbrook, Cessnock, and Singleton in the Hunter New England region which has recorded over 1000 cases.
Muswellbrook entered a lockdown because of cases in the community on 28 September.
The shire mayor, Rod Scholes, is concerned at the strain the state reopening could place on local health services, pointing out the hospital in Muswellbrook doesn’t have an intensive care unit.
“I’m frightened that once we do come out of lockdown from the 11th, a large proportion of the population are still unvaccinated and we might end up putting a strain on local health services.”
Chris Cherry, the mayor of Tweed shire, said for her LGA the big issue has been vaccine supply.
“Supplies were diverted with metropolitan areas to help them with their outbreak,” she said.
“In metropolitan areas, the 11 October is a day of celebrations because it’s a release of restrictions, but for regional areas, it’s an imposition of restrictions for anybody not vaccinated.”
Cherry said the Tweed LGA has seen “50% of the population going into lockdown, because through no fault of their own [they] haven’t been able to get vaccinated.”
She said there were “perverse outcomes” for regional communities who are having restrictions put in place next week, such as not being allowed to use indoor pools, which hadn’t existed before 11 October.
The Northern Rivers business chamber alerted the NSW government that local businesses won’t be able to operate under these conditions, due to the low vaccination rates in their communities.
While the government’s changes on 3 October have allowed staff in regional areas to work with only one vaccination and proof of a second appointment, Cherry said the amendment has “provided an avenue for businesses to be opened, but not to have customers.”
“It is going to be incredibly difficult for our businesses to enforce these rules and will only serve to heighten anxiety at a time when many regions are facing the very real likelihood of their first Covid-19 outbreak,” Cherry said.
While regional areas in NSW like Murray River, Gilgandra, Sutherland Shire, Lachlan and Hay have double-dose vaccination rates among the highest in the state, above 76% – alongside Sydney suburbs like Mosman and Woollahra – experts say the risk for those regional communities on the other end of the spectrum is serious.
President of the Rural Doctors Association of Australia, Dr John Hall, said he was very concerned states were opening up based on vaccination rates that are a whole of state average, “predominantly influenced what’s happening in major cities”.
Hall said for many rural hospitals “if they get one rapidly deteriorating case, it will wipe out their capacity.”
With regional travel opening up, outbreaks in those communities could see rural hospitals overwhelmed with a “knock-on effect” which would impact access to normal non-Covid related care.
He highlighted that the Covid outbreak in north-west NSW had required the employment of a surge workforce, but that will not be possible to do across a broader area.
While the ADF and Australian Medical Assistance Teams had been brought in to aid the vaccine rollout in north-west NSW, Hall said it would be preferable to avoid an emergency response and instead “beef up” existing primary care before there’s an outbreak.
He suggested targeting existing practices and services and giving them access to additional nurses and doctors in a short-term campaign.
The geographic areas with the lowest rates of vaccination were also regional areas in other states – West Pilbara in Western Australia , Daly-Tiwi-West Arnhem in the Northern Territory, the Northern Bowen Basin in Queensland and the Central Highlands in Tasmania.
However, metropolitan areas such as Canberra East in the ACT, Playford in South Australia and Tullamarine in Victoria had the lowest rates in their respective territory and state.
Hall emphasised that regional communities with lower rates were particularly concerning because their communities are especially vulnerable with higher percentages of Indigenous Australians and people with chronic diseases, resulting in higher rates of people becoming seriously unwell. “It all compounds,” he said.
Deputy CEO NACCHO and Co-Chair on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Group on Covid-19, Dr Dawn Casey, said NACCHO emphasises the need to continue to improve vaccination rates and that ACCHOs are initiating innovative ideas to also accelerate the uptake of vaccination such as vaccination vans, vaxathons and pop up clinics.
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