WE MUST BE READY FOR CHALLENGES
NEWS that Tasmania will take a flight-load of returning Australians from the UK will likely be troubling to some in the community. But it’s a sharp reminder that if we haven’t been preparing for some sort of risk then we haven’t been listening.
As cosy as it is on our island with the drawbridge well and truly up, while the pandemic continues there is always a chance of it making its way here. As well, the current measures and restrictions cannot be maintained forever.
Premier Peter Gutwein had already committed to national cabinet that our state would do its bit to help Australians get home and we would accept international repatriation flights.
Fortunately, Mr Gutwein was also able to cut a deal with Victoria that we would take their quota of low-risk fruit pickers from the Pacific Islands if Victoria took our high risk flights from countries such as India and the UK.
The international landscape has changed significantly, especially as we watch the tragedy unfold in Afghanistan.
As much as we want to protect our shores, we cannot deny help to those who need it. It’s time for us to play a part.
The spread of the Delta strain has heightened anxieties about community transmission and we know that hotel quarantine has been the source of the country’s most recent outbreaks.
Our state government has done a stellar job of keeping us safe so far but now it faces another huge test.
Knowing that we would at some point be required to take international high risk arrivals – are we really ready to do so? Are our city centre hotels equipped to deal with the highly-infectious strain? Does our health system have a bulletproof way of isolating and coping with positive cases? Any slip-up could plunge our state into a seemingly never-ending lockdown. The government and Public Health must get this absolutely right.
It’s reassuring that travellers from the UK will be more likely to have been vaccinated. But why can’t we refuse entry to those who are eligible but who have not yet been vaccinated? Likewise, it’s reassuring travellers will have to return a negative test before boarding.
While the government has its challenges to overcome, this new risk factor demonstrates precisely why we all need to hurry up and get vaccinated. Should there be an outbreak, that vaccination makes you far less likely to catch the virus and if you do, your symptoms will be much, much milder.
This new flight should also be the catalyst for more conversation about us reopening when we are vaccinated. One way or another we will have to face these challenges down the track and we have to be ready for them.