Public housing tower residents who endured the nation's harshest hard lockdown last year say they are concerned not enough has been done by Victorian authorities to support the communities during the Melbourne outbreak.
Key points:
- Residents who asked for scaled-up deep cleaning in response to the outbreak were told it would be done if a positive case emerged
- A residents' advocate said the response was "very disappointing" given the lasting trauma caused by the 2020 hard lockdown
- There are also fears that misinformation and a lack of awareness about eligibility are hampering the vaccination rollout for residents
On Friday, Victorian health authorities revealed the suspected index cases in a cluster of seven people were infected with the Delta variant, which was first detected in India and is believed to be more severe than previous strains.
COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar said there were more than 300 primary close contacts linked to the West Melbourne family cluster, including "a small number" of people from inner-city public housing towers.
Health authorities have not confirmed if those close contacts are in the towers or in alternative quarantine accommodation.
During the city's deadly second wave last year, nine public housing towers across Flemington and North Melbourne were placed into an unprecedented lockdown to prevent an explosive outbreak.
The Victorian Ombudsman last year found the lockdown was justified but carrying it out without any warning breached the residents' human rights.
Residents told a deep clean would occur if a positive case emerged
On Monday, residents from the Flemington and North Melbourne housing towers used a WhatsApp group chat with housing authorities to request an increase to the frequency of deep cleans of the tower blocks, in light of the lockdown.
A housing department representative replied that deep sanitisation cleans would occur "if there were a positive case".
"This would happen every day for 14 days after any positive case," the representative said.
Supplied: Anonymous
)Barry Berih, who is part of a group advocating for residents, said he was disappointed by the response and believed authorities were waiting for a case before taking action.
"It's very disappointing. Because we actually rely on them," he said.
"And what actually happened [during] the [hard] lockdown is that we lost trust in the government agencies," he said.
Concern over vaccine hesitancy
North Melbourne towers resident working group member Kelli Willis said efforts to vaccinate residents were also floundering, with many either unaware they were eligible or sceptical of the vaccine's benefits.
All residents of the towers are eligible for vaccination due to the increased risk of transmission within public housing.
Ms Willis found out that public housing residents were eligible for the COVID vaccine from her daughter, who saw the news shared on a Facebook group, Updates from the Block.
"I mean, you would think that if we were eligible we would be the first ones to know rather than it coming through different channels," Ms Willis said.
ABC News: Oliver Gordon
)She believes the update about eligibility should have been directly communicated through the Department of Health to residents.
“It's as simple as putting a flyer in our mailbox, for example, and being prepared to have information that is available in different languages that people can read and understand," she said.
"But that wasn't done."
Ms Willis said she was also concerned by high rates of vaccine hesitancy amongst residents.
"It's an issue of a lot of misinformation, of people watching too much YouTube," she said.
"I think that's affecting a lot of people getting it.
"We haven't had any information specific to the vaccine spread to the building to inform people about what they're eligible for, or what they should be getting."
The ABC asked the Department of Health if it knew how many residents in public housing towers were vaccinated but it did not respond by deadline.
Crowded lifts still pose transmission risk
Fatima* lives in a housing tower in Flemington and said in the aftermath of last year's hard lockdown, stringent sanitisation protocols were being followed.
"But the last four or five months, nothing like that has been happening in the building. It went like back to before," she said.
ABC News: Simon Winter
)She is concerned that in her building in Flemington, there is overcrowding in places like lifts.
"We got 10 people, even more, stuck on these lifts, especially in the morning when taking kids to school."
Early test results 'reassuring', epidemiologist says
Epidemiologist Catherine Bennett said early test results coming back from the more than 300 people connected the West Melbourne cluster now threatening the towers were encouraging.
"They've got 70 per cent of those that have come back negative so that's really reassuring," she said.
But she warned it was still unclear how risky the situation was.
"There may yet be people incubating the virus if anyone's been exposed," she said.
"But the important thing is to know about that, and to be able to support those families in a way that doesn't impact on the wider tower.
"But at this stage it's looking like there's limited possibility [of more transmission], and that's what we have to hope for, because it's quite hard to manage and very disruptive for those communities in the towers."
*Fatima is not the person's real name.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiZ2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIxLTA2LTA1L21lbGJvdXJuZS1wdWJsaWMtaG91c2luZy10b3dlci1jb3ZpZC1vdXRicmVhay1jb250YWN0cy8xMDAxOTEyOTDSAShodHRwczovL2FtcC5hYmMubmV0LmF1L2FydGljbGUvMTAwMTkxMjkw?oc=5
2021-06-04 19:39:42Z
52781644437049
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Melbourne public housing tower residents call for more deep cleaning during COVID outbreak - ABC News"
Post a Comment