The state of NSW continues to be under lock and key or lock down due to the ongoing Covid -19 pandemic.
Our little hamlet of Harden – Murrumburrah and surrounds is also under that lock down alongside other rural communities.
Some will blame the state government’s original failings with the Ruby Princess debacle, others will lay blame on a small number of individuals in Sydney who did the wrong thing and allowed the virus to spread more recently. Contract tracers have been unable to keep up with the contract tracing needed.
Vaccines were then taken from the bush to the city to vaccinate HSC students and today we find that many school captains on the Northern Beaches want exams held next year and are banding together to hold discussions with the Department of Education to address their disrupted year.
Sewage has only started to be tested in many bush local government areas, something residents would have assumed had been going on for the last 18 months. They say prevention is better than cure.
Regional NSW is already isolated. From the farmer sowing a crop in the same tractor for weeks on end to the distance between each community. 30 ks, 40 ks, 50 ks, etc.
Murrumbidgee Local Health and Southern New South Wales Local Health Districts contain vast areas of land. A little less land than the South American country Uruguay, which covers 176,215 km2. In fact, both Health districts combined are larger than 145 other countries and have a rather small population, 440,000 people compared to Uruguay which has a population of 3,462,000
Murrumbidgee Local Health District MLHD and Southern NSW Local Health Districts SNSWLHD cover a land mass of 169,776 square kilometres.
SNSWLHD has 4.5 people for every square km. MLHD has 1.9 people for every square kilometre. Uruguay has 19.44 people for every square kilometre. It has had 384,934 cases alongside 6,032 deaths while 377,764 of those cases have recovered.
MLHD has recorded one death thus far.
While the lock down continues, there will be many local businesses go to the wall. There are too many hoops to jump through and Job Keeper isn’t coming back anytime soon. Those in our community need to weigh up the pros and cons of being vaccinated. The smaller group contains the anti vaxxers, the consensus includes those getting vaccinated. It appears all of us can carry the virus vaccinated or not.
It also appears the virus is going nowhere and the way our communities will operate may be challenged and changed for the foreseeable future.
The State and Federal governments have struggled to work together and don’t appear to be on the same page due to politics.
With a Federal Election coming up the Coalition will want to hold it under a free and open society not have those voting, doing so, angrily, from the confines of their locked up existence.
