Ground zero for our state

BY now everyone has heard the message — selfisolate, stay at home, only go out if necessary — your efforts will stop the spread and save lives. And, as is always the case, many among us are beginning to get tired of being told what to do — questioning authority figures is after all part of the Australian nature.

A lot of us are starting to see holes in the policy — why can we still go to supermarkets? How come we’re still letting the kids immerse themselves in a human petri dish at schools?

And no doubt these points have some validity. Many people who see large fines being handed out for non-compliance with the current regime of selfisolation begin to question its logic.

That’s fair enough. These are exceptional times but we are still a democratic society.

However, there is one set of facts every Tasmanian needs to take notice of.

Burnie is presently ground zero for the state in terms of this crisis.

The virus is there, it’s spreading through the community and health officials are unable to detect the source.

This is a terrible and terrifying time for the close to 20,000 residents in the city and in the surrounding North-West region. Right now this is not a place where people can go and have confidence they are not going to contract the virus.

THE UNCERTAINTY FACING PEOPLE IN BURNIE IS FRIGHTENING AND IT IS AN UNCERTAINTY MOST PEOPLE ACROSS THE STATE HAVE THUS FAR BEEN SPARED.

The uncertainty facing people in Burnie is frightening and it is an uncertainty most people across the state have thus far been spared.

It is for this reason that this Easter no one from the North-West should be venturing outside of their area.

And it is for this reason that no one from elsewhere in the state should be venturing into the North-West.

It’s now a cliche to say that doing so would put lives at risk — although it is very true.

It is people’s lives we are talking about here and no one deserves to be put at risk by recklessness.

And there’s also a less significant but also far less talked about set of facts in play that may well provide anyone flickering on the edge of non-compliance a light at the end of the tunnel.

Should we succeed in containing the illness, should it be the case that every person with COVID-19 has been accounted for and all the people they have been in contact with have been tested and identified as sick or healthy — then at that point, life across the Apple Isle will likely be able to return to normal.

We will be able to fill our pubs, enjoy our beaches, hike through our national parks, reopen our restaurants and go anywhere in the state we may please. And there is a very real possibility if we comply with the rules we will be able to do this long before people in other states and other parts of the world have been able to do so.

This will lessen the economic impact unleashed by the crisis and once again prove life in Tasmania is just better than life anywhere else.

If you’ve read that and still see no reason to do the right thing, you are beyond help. We can only hope the police find you and fine you.