NSW records second Aboriginal Covid death, as 1,000 Indigenous people now have virus
A second Aboriginal person has died with Covid-19 and more than a thousand Indigenous people in NSW now have the virus, with half of those cases in the west and far west of the state.
A 70-year-old woman from the small town of Enngonia who has been described as a “much loved elder” died with Covid in Dubbo hospital on Monday. Enngonia is on Muruwari country, an hour’s drive north of Bourke in the west of New South Wales, close to the Queensland border.
Enngonia has at least 18 cases in a population of just under 200 people – or 9.5% of the town. The woman had been in intensive care after having been transferred from Bourke, where there are now 77 cases in the community.
“Our condolences go to her family and friends, and to the community. We know it’s a very tight-knit community [in Enngonia] and you are in our thoughts,” Scott McLachlan, CEO of the western NSW local health district, said.
The woman’s death follows that of a 52-year-old Aboriginal man from Dubbo on 31 August.
In the western health district, 84% of all current cases are under 50 years old.
The National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (Naccho) confirmed NSW Health data which showed that 1,071 Aboriginal people have contracted the virus since mid-June. At least 519 of those are in the state’s west and far west.
In Wilcannia, more than 13% of the community now has the virus. On Monday it recorded 99 cases in a town of about 720 people.
A coordinated response from the RFDS, police, NSW Health and Maari Ma, the Aboriginal community controlled health organisation, is now under way in the hard-hit town.
Over the weekend 30 motorhomes arrived and officials say they will be operational “early this week” for people to isolate in, after some said they had been forced to isolate in tents due to overcrowded housing.
NSW Health said the motorhomes would remain in place until no longer required. An emergency management hub is operating from the Wilcannia showground, with staff from NSW Health, police, ADF, Aboriginal Affairs, RFS, SES, ambulance, the Royal Flying Doctor Service and volunteer organisations.
The national Covid taskforce says it is developing a “surge” plan for 30 Aboriginal communities to increase vaccinations and provide strong public health messaging designed to overcome misinformation.
The taskforce coordinator, Lt Gen John Frewen, said the plan was based on learning from the crisis in western NSW.
Frewen told a Senate committee “there has been a plan in place for Indigenous communities since the start of the pandemic” but it has been “given additional urgency” by the outbreaks in western NSW.
The plan was put to the national cabinet on Friday, after sustained criticism of state and federal governments’ failure to vaccinate Aboriginal people, who have been identified as a vulnerable group since the beginning.
Over the next month, 30 communities where vaccination rates lag the furthest behind the national rate and where the Indigenous populations are very high will be targeted for a vaccination blitz, accompanied by culturallyappropriate messaging to counteract vaccine misinformation and hesitancy, Frewen said.
“They will be ones where we will get the highest return on the effort of putting the surge capacities in,” he said.
“We have been learning from the example in western New South Wales, where a very close partnership between federal, state and Indigenous health authorities can deliver very accelerated results.”
Aboriginal community controlled health organisations (Acchos) in NSW have long called for such a strong partnership.
“We need the government to recognise Acchos and invest in them to deliver upscale vaccination models and take local leadership in coordinating the public health response,” executive director of the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council of NSW, Dr Peter Malouf, said last week.
“To see light at the end of the tunnel, we need Aboriginal communities to be the beacon of the public health response.”