Melbourne’s Covid crisis is spiralling dangerously

When I see the awful COVID-19 figures for Melbourne of 747 new cases on Thursday and 627 on Friday, I cannot understand why the Victorian Premier doesn’t just bite the bullet and put us into stage four restrictions.

The populations of New Zealand and Melbourne are comparable (about five million). New Zealand went straight into level four restrictions and succeeded in minimising the numbers of those who tested positive to the virus. Now it is holding steady at level one.

Our stage three lockdown is inconvenient, but apart from having to wear masks, it isn’t too much to accept as we struggle, seemingly unsuccessfully, to contain the virus.

Ian Suren, Mt Eliza, Vic

Your editorial is correct (“Perseverance is key after grimmest Covid-19 day”, 31/7). Confidence in the Victorian government is in freefall as the number of COVID-19 victims rapidly increases, seemingly with nothing to prevent this vicious virus continuing to take lives. The government has lost control. Cross infection involving other states, especially NSW, appears inevitable with breaches from irresponsible travellers continuing to occur. In any other organisation, management would be forced to stand aside with an administrator installed. That won’t happen in Victoria, unfortunately.

No one is safe from this pandemic, with young people now in intensive care. Commentators with no medical training who play down the gravity of this virus should desist because this is no mild epidemic. Unlike influenza, there is no vaccine to keep us protected and according to the best medical scientists in Australia there will be no vaccine any time soon.

With “second waves” occurring around the world, isolation, especially for the vulnerable, is the key to keeping this virus in check. We can only hope.

Lesley Beckhouse, Queanbeyan, NSW

As an experienced GP, I can let readers know that leaving a body in the deathbed for some time is usual practice and dependent on the wishes of relatives, cultural norms and the availability of a funeral home to collect the body (“Left for dead in crisis state”, 31/7). It could be one hour to 12 hours. Is there now something wrong with this process that we expect the body to be moved immediately?

Death, while a fact of life and a regular event in nursing homes, even in non-COVID times, always engenders strong emotions. I would hope your journalists would have some sympathy for those working in an understaffed nursing home — labouring in time-consuming and cumbersome personal protection equipment to do the best they can for their living patients — without imposing new and uncustomary duties on the dead.

Charles Elliott, Banyo, Qld

The Mayor of Brimbank in Melbourne tells us that 166 different languages are spoken in her city, which seems to indicate an amazing number and a wonderful diversity (“Fears of not enough testing in nation’s ground zero”, 30/7). She then says the state Department of Health and Human Services, which I presume is directed by the Minister for Health, had issued its information in only 55 of those languages. That, I think, is a remarkably good effort, but of far more concern is her next comment that “many residents were also illiterate in their native tongues”.

If every rule and regulation has to be expounded in 166 versions, in many cases for people who are illiterate even in their own language, it seems to me an intolerable burden. Perhaps the qualifications for visas and citizenship need to be examined.

Peter Valder, Toorak, Vic

Dr Peter Miller (Letters, 31/7) gives informed insight into dealing with viruses in aged care facilities. He maintains that “aged care facilities are and should be homes, not hospital wards”.

Health professionals must address this issue publicly so the demands of family and the expectations of the public are realistic.

Sarah Childs, Lithgow NSW