IF WE’RE REOPENING, THEN LET’S BE OPEN
HOW much worse, honestly, does it need to get before it gets better? This farce of a rule requiring the double vaccinated to quarantine for seven days if they are deemed a close contact of a Covid positive case must be reconsidered. Consider the outcomes so far. This state has opened the border, much to the Gold Coast’s relief – yet the absurd situation is now arising where the tourism capital – at least in pockets – can’t take advantage of that.
Some businesses have already been forced to shut for days at a time due to the quarantine rule impacting the rosters. Some have managed to stay open by the skin of their teeth by shuffling people around their various operations.
The policing situation in Surfers Paradise – after multiple positive cases among the ranks – is claimed to have been dire, according to one serving officer, later described more euphemistically as “fluid” by the Queensland Police Service in an official statement.
At the weekend, on the brink of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, many families had been waiting to be reunited after long absences apart, when all of a sudden numerous flights were cancelled into Gold Coast and Brisbane.
You can only imagine how upset and frustrated those travellers were who jumped through all the various hoops to make it – double vaccinated, queued for testing, booked the tickets – only to have the rug pulled out from underneath them at the last minute.
The reason? Too many airline staff in quarantine.
Late last week, in a refreshing update, Queensland chief health officer John Gerrard said the Omicron variant of Covid was the dominant strain, incredibly infectious, seemingly milder and its spread was not just inevitable but necessary – as Queensland looked towards the Covid situation moving from being a pandemic to endemic, meaning it was widespread among the population like the flu.
The two ways to build the immunity, he said, were to either get vaccinated or get infected.
Is the left hand of the medico experts talking to the right hand of the government?