The federal government has been accused of "treachery" over its response to an outbreak in NSW which has left hundreds of Aboriginal people battling COVID-19.
Key points:
- An epidemiologist says the number of Indigenous COVID cases could hit 1,000 this week
- Aboriginal healthcare workers around Australia are monitoring the crisis in New South Wales
- Regional NSW services say they are on a "knife edge" and need more resources
More than 750 Aboriginal people have contracted COVID since mid-June across NSW, predominantly in the west and far-west of the state.
Labor senator Pat Dodson said Indigenous communities have been left in a perilous situation in western and far-western NSW and he fears for other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations around the country.
"It's been one of the greatest acts of trickery and treachery, in my view, that Scott Morrison, the Prime Minister, and even the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs have perpetrated upon Aboriginal people," he said.
He said there had not been an adequate vaccine rollout in communities like Dubbo, Wilcannia and Brewarrina before the virus spread from Sydney.
Ken Wyatt, the Minister for Indigenous Australians, blamed "hesitancy" for the gaps emerging in vaccination rates among Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.
ABC News, File photo
)"I find it interesting when people talk about hesitancy not being an issue," Mr Wyatt said.
"I have listened to media interviews — hesitancy is an issue that we have to overcome.
"We still have a lot of work to do. And so we will continue to focus on making sure people are vaccinated and safe."
But Senator Dodson said there was little to no capacity to deal with future outbreaks in other regional and remote Aboriginal communities.
"We have no real management plan as to what's going to happen if a community is the subject of a virus," he said.
"These are communities with maybe one store, a clinic and [they] feel ill-equipped to cope with isolation or the serious kind of medical responses that are needed."
Aboriginal health services are on a "knife edge" desperately trying to drive up vaccination rates while hundreds of Indigenous people battle COVID in NSW.
Fears outbreak could spread, 1,000 Indigenous cases predicted
Indigenous infectious diseases experts have told the ABC they are gravely worried about increasing case numbers in western and far-western NSW.
Supplied: David Towney
)Epidemiologist Peter Malouf, from the NSW Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council, said the number of Indigenous COVID cases could hit 1,000 this week.
"The prediction is that we will see more Aboriginal hospitalisations due to the increase in case numbers."
Indigenous Australians have an increased risk of complications from COVID-19 due to a range of factors including higher rates of underlying health conditions and inequalities in housing and healthcare access.
Dr Malouf said the outbreak was "not contained" in his view.
"I'm shocked and frustrated that our community members and our Aboriginal community-controlled health services are not around the table of the planning and the response."
Supplied: David Towney
)The death of a Wiradjuri man in Dubbo has been described as a tragedy by community members in western NSW.
Wiradjuri man David Towney is angry at what he sees as a complacent response by the NSW government during the Sydney outbreak.
"All that little political bubble that was happening in Sydney ignored us. And now we're paying the consequences," he said.
"We didn't have to go through this.
"And now we're getting all this support stuff thrown at us because they know that they were in the wrong, they did the wrong thing."
Aboriginal health workers 'exhausted' and 'burnt out'
Aboriginal health services elsewhere are closely monitoring the unfolding crisis in New South Wales.
"This is a tragic wake-up call for us," WA's Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services medical director Lorraine Anderson said.
"We're really concerned about it getting into our remote Aboriginal communities and very concerned about people getting sick and dying," she said.
ABC News: Jacqueline Lynch
)Vaccination rates among Indigenous Australians in some remote areas of WA are critically low and health workers believe hesitancy has been a major factor.
But Ms Anderson said in the last couple of weeks, attitudes have started to shift.
"Those that were hesitant because they didn't think COVID was going to come to the Kimberley are now starting to line up to get vaccinated," she said.
On the South Coast of NSW, Aboriginal medical services are desperate for more resources and staff so that they can boost vaccination clinics.
Supplied
)At the Illawarra Aboriginal Medical Service in Wollongong, Kane Ellis said his community was "on a knife's edge", deeply worried COVID would spread.
"We have been getting some help, but not enough," he said.
"Listen to us. Because we know how to do this for our community. And I don't think that's actually being taken on board seriously yet."
Dr Malouf is concerned that health workers in NSW are "burnt out, exhausted and tired".
"We need to be thinking about how we provide relief work … vicarious trauma is setting in," he said.
There are also concerns for Indigenous Australians in prison.
Dozens of people have been infected at the Silverwater Correctional Complex and Parklea Correctional Centre in Sydney.
ABC News: Ben Pettitt
)Advocacy group Change the Record wrote to the government in May 2020, voicing their concerns on the potential detrimental impacts COVID would have on First Nations inmates.
"We knew that the prison systems in particular, should an outbreak occur, it could not be controlled and it would have a devastating impact on particularly Aboriginal people in the system," Change the Record co-chair Cheryl Axleby said.
"What is really concerning is the quality of health care that will be provided to many of our mob in the prison system.
"Many who go into the system [have] a lot of health needs and disabilities."
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2021-08-31 19:01:06Z
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