IT’S TIME TO SET COURSE FOR NORMAL
AS warmer weather draws nearer, Tasmanian minds will inevitably be drawn to plans for summer: catching up with friends and family, taking a break from work, perhaps even travelling interstate. For the folk in our tourism and hospitality industry, summer brings with it the prospect of a return to a normally busy season, which is much needed.
Australia is 18 months into this pandemic. Vaccination rates are soaring nationwide. People have overwhelmingly obeyed the restrictions placed upon us. We’ve socially distanced, we’ve checked in, we’ve self-isolated, worn masks, home schooled and holidayed at home. We’ve missed weddings and funerals and catch-ups with families. For some, long-made plans, like travel or university have been postponed and for others, the loss of income has had a devastating effect.
Friends and family interstate have long periods in lockdown, we have seen the riot police on the streets, and the helicopters overhead enforcing restrictions. We watch with envy as the rest of the world returns to normal and concerns about Covid become part of the background noise of ordinary life. Yet we remain locked in and locked down and our state and national leaders seem to have been issued different song sheets when the band strikes up a tune for reopening.
It is understandable that many feel uncertain and unable to make plans. We have heard promises of a staged national reopening when vaccination rates reach 70 per cent or 80 per cent. Locally, the figure of 90 per cent has been flagged, and “100 per cent of eligible people offered vaccinations”. Now the state government is awaiting its own modelling and will release more details in the coming days of the plan for Tasmania’s reopening.
One of the less edifying parts of the pandemic response has been this variability between state and federal jurisdictions. As the federal government has blundered quarantine, and relief payments and vaccines, each state premier has interpreted medical advice according to their own appetite for risk. The people of Australia have demonstrated an extraordinary degree of co-operation and compliance. But even the most obedient are becoming weary.
Just as it is impossible to remove every last vestige of risk from ordinary life, so too will it be impossible to negate entirely the risk of Covid-19. As vaccination rates rise, we must see restrictions eased and the full return of the freedoms we once took for granted. Risk is inherent in life, and the presence of Covid in our community is a reality we will all have to accept, despite the reservations of some. But what we cannot accept is this continued uncertainty about when we embark on the path back to normal life.