Queensland border opening: Covid is everywhere and we will all get infected

Assume Covid is everywhere and assume every one of us will get infected, writes Rae Wilson. Should the borders have opened? Take the poll

Well hasn’t the border opening been a right royal sh-- show?!

You must have a negative PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test within 72 hours of returning to Queensland. If the state you’re in lets you have one and if you can get your results in time for your flight. Many could not.

OK, have a negative Rapid Antigen Test. If you can find one in stock. And if you can afford one. Many could not.

Well then, let’s just accept Covid is running rampant along the entire east coast of Australia.

Assume Covid is everywhere. Assume every one of us will get infected.

But wear masks indoors, work from home if you can and try to stay socially distant as Omicron passes through.

Cartoonist Harry Bruce’s take on Covid numbers exploding across the Mackay region.

We must protect our most vulnerable people, the ones who cannot have a vaccination and the ones with potentially dangerous comorbidities.

Health figures show those vaccinated are less likely to end up in hospital and even less likely to end up in the Intensive Care Unit.

Those who’ve had the booster shot, anecdotally, experience minimal symptoms. But the effect is as predictable as picking the correct lotto numbers.

The vaccination clinic at Mackay Showgrounds was overrun on Tuesday morning with people seeking a Covid-19 booster shot. Picture: Rae Wilson

Queensland is hitting record after record but with testing access issues statewide, true active case numbers will continue to elude our top medical officers.

Last year, Mackay Isaac Whitsundays had extra help from the federal government with the North Mackay Respiratory Clinic — run from Health on Central at Andergrove — and the Whitsundays Respiratory Clinic able to test, and diagnose people with mild to moderate Covid-19 symptoms.

The Pub in Airlie Beach is packed on New Year's Eve. Picture: Rae Wilson

Where is that funding and extra service now Covid has struck our region good and proper?

The Mackay region now has more than 1350 active Covid cases, a long way from our total of 15 in April and May 2020 when other places were exploding.

Businesses begged for the borders to open and interstate tourists obligingly have been coming in droves.

Line-up for Magnums Nightclub in Airlie Beach on New Year's Eve 2021. Picture: Rae Wilson

But many of them have had Covid around them for the better part of two years so they have been living the ‘new normal’.

They are used to wearing masks and sanitising but we have been complacent for so long, I hope we can all adjust, and quickly.

The Airlie Beach Lagoon is packed with families on New Year's Eve. Picture: Rae Wilson

I was supposed to have my first family Christmas with us all together in almost a decade.

Covid put a stop to that when one part of the family all came down with the virus.

Mackay Daily Mercury Editor Rae Wilson. Picture: Heidi Petith

There was no contract tracer call. Only self-diagnosis and positive RATs.

Positive PCR tests took as long to return as the illness itself lasted for two of them.

Despite vaccination, my family members were hit hard in the days leading up to Christmas – sore throat, cough, cold, losing taste and smell among the symptoms.

I hate to think what it would have been like if they were not vaccinated.

But they did the right thing, despite no official results for many days, and stayed home instead of infecting my ill father and the rest of my family at Christmas.

With testing facilities under extreme pressure and RAT tests as scarce as toilet paper in early 2020, don’t risk it if you think you might have Covid.

Stay home and isolate. Click and collect is a wonderful thing.