Alarm as Indigenous Covid-19 infections on the rise

Covid-19 cases in NSW’s west jumped from 64 to 99 on Monday as the state government began helping Aboriginal people shift from their homes in Dubbo.

Empty streets in Dubbo in the NSW central west. Picture: Getty Images

Covid-19 cases in western NSW jumped from 64 to 99 on Monday as the state government began helping Aboriginal people shift from their homes in Dubbo to ­secret temporary accommo­dation where they can avoid ­unwanted contact with un­announced visitors.

The majority of people infected in the regional outbreak are Indigenous and include adults who caught Covid-19 from children during family gatherings, The Australian has been told.

Overall, 40 per cent of those infected in the outbreak are under 19. The virus reached Bourke on Monday, where a man tested positive and was taken to hospital.

As health authorities braced for another blowout in cases in the west on Tuesday, the Aboriginal Medical Service in Walgett continued testing and vaccinating Indigenous residents in its clinic using extra Pfizer supplies that arrived last week and two testing machines.

There were four Aboriginal people with Covid-19 in Walgett on Tuesday and fears there would be many more in coming days, in part because many Indigenous families live in overcrowded houses.

Nationally, 28 per cent of ­Aboriginal and Torres Strait ­Islander people over 16 have had at least one Covid-19 vaccine shot, compared with half the general population over 16.

The vaccination gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is even wider in ­regional and remote areas.

A team of Aboriginal Medical Service health workers drove from Walgett to vaccinate Indigenous people in outlying remote communities on Tuesday.

From Tuesday, the Royal Flying Doctor Service and nursing students from the University of Newcastle will join trained vaccinators from the Aboriginal Medical Service to give Pfizer and AstraZeneca to Indigenous ­people further afield, including at Brewarrina and Goodooga.

Walgett Aboriginal Medical Service chief organisations manager Katrina Ward said attitudes among Aboriginal people in the region were beginning to change.

“Initially, people were a bit ­reluctant about the vaccinations partly because of negative things in the news,” she said.

“There was a bit of ignorance as well – people were thinking ‘It will never get us’ but once it got to Dubbo, it put a bit of scare into the community.

“They are starting to realise that Covid is a serious virus and it is here for the long term.”

Dubbo MP Dugald Saunders said in his electorate, where there were 91 cases, well-known Aboriginal residents had filmed Covid-19 safety messages for ­social media encouraging people not to visit family.

He said some Indigenous ­people in Dubbo had volunteered to go to hotels or other temporary accommodation because they were concerned they would be unable to turn away relatives who turned up at their home.