Whilst there are many benefits to being a popular tourist area, rising COVID-19 case numbers, overloaded testing facilities, and pressure on local hospitals on the Far North Coast are amongst the costs.
The Member for Ballina, Tamara Smith has written to the New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet about the COVID-19 crisis and how it is affecting the Northern Rivers.
Ms Smith says that recently the Premier announced the reopening of New South Wales despite indications that this decision could place enormous pressure on regional health services – particularly in the Ballina electorate – with 16 flights a day of visitors arriving since December, many of you whom have accessed PCR testing and booster appointments.
Northern Rivers upsurge of cases
‘The reopening has resulted in an upsurge of COVID-19 cases in the northern rivers which has led to a high demand for COVID tests.’
The extra load on our systems has contributed to locals not being able to access testing and vaccinations services in a reasonable time frame.
Ms Smith says a popular tourist destination and a border zone, the community faces additional pressures from the Queensland government testing requirements. ‘Without additional support, our community cannot cope with the growing number of cases and high testing demands.’
Gone from heavily surveyed to fend for yourselves
Ms Smith said today that we have gone from being heavily surveyed to the other extreme of ‘fend for yourselves’.
Ms Smith says that we have seen our healthcare system unable to sustain the heavy workloads resulting from the reopening of the state. ‘Health staff are exhausted and overworked and yet are not being offered any incentive to effectively manage the demands from a community in which the virus is spreading exponentially. This has led to staff shortages in our regional healthcare system.
‘In addition, local businesses are closing because their employees are spending countless hours trying to get tested and then isolating while waiting for results.’
Strategic planning and fundamentals
Ms Smith said what we need is strategic planning and the supply of fundamentals.
‘I am urgently asking the Premier to give our community free and accessible RAT tests to ease the pressure on the test sites, provide additional resources for hospitals, give frontline health workers incentive to manage their unsustainable workloads, and give the local businesses the financial support they need to survive their staffing shortages.’
Ms Smith says she is yet to receive a response.
Recent stories, information and updates regarding COVID-19
New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Life shows life expectancy in Australia has decreased slightly for the second year in a row. An international team of researchers has found more evidence that COVID-19 came from animals in a Wuhan food market. The lab-leak theory that Covid-19 came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology – instead of a nearby wet market – was thrashed about in public recently, with the US Senate Homeland Security Committee holding a hearing into Covid-19. Eighteen schools in the Northern Rivers division of Richmond have received $25,000 each as part of the federal government’s School Upgrade Fund, Labor Member for Richmond Justine Elliot said last week. COVID-19 reversed earlier trends toward longer life expectancies. During the pandemic, life expectancies globally dropped by 1.6 years according to a new study published in the Lancet medical journal. Let’s not forget that Covid-19 is still a big issue in our community with 31,935 cases reported across Australia in the last week – an average of 4,562 cases per day. The Global Carbon Budget is about to be refreshed, giving the world a critical insight into how efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are (or are not) progressing. Masks will no longer be mandatory on public transport from tomorrow, Wednesday 21 September. SW Police are urging festival-goers at this weekend’s music festival to celebrate in a safe and responsible manner, whilst also being aware of COVID-Safety measures. The Northern NSW Local Health District reports that to 4pm yesterday, Sunday May 22, there were 40 COVID-19 positive patients in hospital in Northern NSW, with one of these in ICU.
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