Coronavirus: Victorians in fight of their lives

People wearing face masks are seen at the entrance of the Menarock Life aged care facility, where a cluster of some 28 new infections had been reported, in the Melbourne suburb of Essendon.

Scott Morrison is right to insist that the states should continue holding the line on the nation’s aggressive suppression strategy to deal with COVID-19. “You can’t mortgage off your economy for what would prove to be a very illusory goal,” the Prime Minister said on Thursday. The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee agrees, also noting that suppression leads to periods of elimination in parts of the country. “True elimination in Australia is unrealistic in the absenc­e of a vaccine,” a Department of Health spokesman said. “It is impossible to completely seal the borders of any country, even an island continent such as Australia, and nor should we try.” Returning travellers, trade vessels and crews would continue arriving. We cannot cut ourselves off from the world entirely. Lockdowns are a last resort — “what you have to do when things get to the point they have in Victoria”, as Mr Morrison says. There, the situation is “beyond what we would have hoped would have occurred”.

Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton has said elimination is “worthy of consideration”. But his main focus must remain the battle to bring the pandemic back under control. Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt was not exaggerating when he said Melburnians and other Victorians were in “the great fight of our lives”. Thursday’s news was confronting.

Victoria's Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton.

New coronavirus cases in the state increased by 428 cases on Friday and by 317 on Thursday, the highest daily spikes since the pandemic started. Of those new cases on Thursday, 28 have been linked to known outbreaks and 289 remain under investigation. As untraced community transmissions in Victoria approach 1000, virus detectives are trying to contact tens of thousands of COVID-19 patients’ close contacts. Given the importance and labour-intensive nature of testing and swift, accurate tracing, Victoria deserves generous support from the rest of the nation to bolster its efforts. The Morrison government has offered more than 1000 Australian Defence Force personnel to help with tracing.

Of 109 patients with the virus in Victorian hospitals, 29 are in intensive care, including five people in their 40s, six in their 50s and eight in their 60s. Many are on ventilators. The government has done well to ensure the state is well equipped, with 1200 ventilators in hospitals and hundreds more in storage. More than 1000 IV pumps, hundreds of patient monitors and millions of gloves and masks are ready for use. As Melbourne hospitals shift their focus to COVID-19, much of the scheduled elective surgeries and other procedures in public and private hospitals are being postponed.

By locking down at vast cost to their economy and quality of life, Victorians are doing other Australians an important service by containing the virus. Limiting the outbreak as much as possible is critical, not only to protect those most at risk of infection and death but also because new research from Italy into the medium-term effects on sufferers suggests COVID-19 has left patients, including some in their 50s, with anxiety, depression and exhaustion. A concurrent British study shows fit young COVID-19 patients are at risk of lasting lung problems.

Other states must learn from Victoria’s experience, where the main problems arose initially from the mismanagement of quarantine hotels (which will remain essential for months at least) and inadequate tracing. NSW, fortunately, appears to have grasped the lessons. As Mr Morrison says, NSW health officials moved “incredibly quickly” to investigate the cluster at the Crossroads Hotel in southwestern Sydney. The NSW situation remains tense, but the fact new cases were limited to 10 on Thursday was encouraging.

Victoria’s predicament should be a wake-up call to all Australians whose adherence to social distancing, hand washing and recording their names in cafes, pubs and other venues has become slack since the virus abated in other states and territories. Victoria recorded no cases as recently as June 9.

The COVID-19 battle is complex and far from over. There is no room for complacency about taking precautions if we want to restore the economy and hasten the return to normal life.