Shannon Deery: Why obsession with COVID ‘doughnut days’ must end

Victoria is more than ready to get on with its COVID-normal. But we can’t put life on hold each time a new case emerges.

It’s finally here. From today, Victorians will begin being vaccinated against the novel coronavirus — 395 days after COVID-19 was first introduced to the state with devastating consequences.

Since then, tens of thousands of Victorians have been infected and more than 800 have died.

Every single Victorian has been affected in some way, not the least of which by extensive and restrictive lockdowns.

An initial 12,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine will be given to hotel quarantine and health hotel workers, airport and port workers, high-risk frontline health staff and public sector residential aged care staff and residents.

Over the next four weeks, another 59,000 doses of the vaccine will land in Victoria.

While more than 150 million vaccines have already been distributed worldwide, our 71,000 initial allocation seems small change. But it’s a start.

Premier Daniel Andrews must end the obsession with the zero-cases threshold. Picture Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

And as the doses start rolling out, it’s becoming easier to think about Victoria’s recovery.

It’s also becoming more important to end the obsession with the zero-cases threshold.

We simply can’t continue to put life on hold each time a new case emerges.

Likewise, we can’t continue to put life on hold because of the fear of new cases emerging.

New cases will emerge. This much we can be sure of. The virus lurks out there, and will rear its head sporadically.

But with the rollout of the vaccine, the opportunity for it to do so will reduce.

The emergence of new cases over the New Year period saw Victoria slam shut its borders, barring thousands of Victorians from returning home.

Last week, we were sent back into a sudden circuit breaker lockdown amid another leak from hotel quarantine, the flagged complete overhauling of which is now long overdue, surely.

Idle tourist boats on the last day of Melbourne’s five-day lockdown. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Ian Currie

Each sudden knee-jerk reaction to minor outbreaks succeeded in stopping a more wide scale problem to emerge, true.

But it also failed to put the state’s resilience to tackle small outbreaks within the confines of COVID-normal to the test, while serving as a reminder that the next lockdown is always imminent.

Daniel Andrews says he always acts on health advice and has confidence in systems in place to deal with outbreaks.

So why then do the people imparting the health advice not share that same confidence?

Every sudden return to lockdown doesn’t just hurt Victorian businesses struggling to get people through their doors.

It serves as a significant deterrent to interstate investment amid falling confidence in their ability to do business here.

Such nervousness around our COVID-normal was last week attributed in part to the short lived decision to scrap Moomba.

Melbourne was a ghost town once again during the five-day circuit breaker. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Ian Currie

It was the latest in a series of decisions that highlights a lack of faith in current public health settings.

Despite scaling back the festival and submitting a COVID-safe plan for approval, Lord Mayor Sally Capp decided to axe the event amid fears over running it safely.

Council sources say the bureaucratic tape needed to navigate to host such an event was excessive, and felt the state government could have done more to make it work.

The state government was left blindsided by the decision to dump the event, with major events minister Martin Pakula straight on the phone after hearing the news to voice his frustration.

Decision reversed. As it should have been.

Victoria is more than ready to get on with its COVID-normal. It just needs the chance to do so.

But the worrying disconnect between Spring St and Town Hall does not bode well for Melbourne’s recovery.

The city’s economy has been devastated by multiple lockdowns. Picture Wayne Taylor/Getty Images

The city has been left decimated by COVID-19, which is why holding events like Moomba and getting people back into town, in a safe way, is so vital.

Not just for the long-suffering small businesses, but for Melbourne’s soul.

But the CBD will not recover until Town Hall and Spring St are on the same page.

The next element of that must surely be around the return of public sector workers to offices.

And if Moomba doesn’t spark a widespread outbreak, why stop there? Let’s bring back the Anzac Day march too.

The tennis was held successfully, and safely, surely other events can be too.

The fight against COVID-19 is not over. But the rollout of the vaccine signals the hopeful beginning of the end.

The obsession with zero cases must end. It’s time to start looking to, and living, a COVID-normal.

Surely if anyone can make it work, Victorians can.

— Shannon Deery is state politics editor

Originally published as Shannon Deery: Why obsession with COVID ‘doughnut days’ must end