Evolving response
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on everyday life continues to evolve – and health officials remain on high alert.
Saturday marked three years since the World Health Organisation defined COVID-19 a pandemic. At the time, there were more than 118,000 cases in 114 countries, and 4291 people had died.
Border closures, lockdowns and restrictions to social distancing and vaccination rules followed.
People continue to test positive to the virus and about five lives are lost to COVID-19, daily, in Victoria alone. Medical clinics such as Horsham’s Lister House, which also hosted a respiratory clinic for the region, remain on standby to respond quickly, should infection numbers spike again.
Grampians Health chief strategy and regions officer Dr Rob Grenfell stressed the pandemic was far from over.
He said sub-variants of Omicron continued to challenge health response, and people continued to experience serious illness or death.
Dr Grenfell said increasing evidence of LONG-COVID was demonstrating impacts to neural systems, heart and lungs in particular.
“There still is considerable concern we might have a complete variant change emerging – and any areas where there is complete social disruption is ripe for a new variant to pop up. Until we can iron out those irregularities across the planet, we will have a continued threat,” he said.
Dr Grenfell was overseeing a team at one of the country’s most secure scientific laboratories – the CSIRO Australian Animal Health Lab in Geelong – until about a year ago and his involvement in preparing for, and responding to, the world’s ‘next pandemic’ had begun years earlier.
“We’re on – this is it,” he recalls thinking of reports of a highly-volatile virus in China in December 2019.
Australia had recorded its first confirmed case in late January 2020 and two months later, the virus had officially reached the Wimmera.
Dr Grenfell said global attention for a health solution had led to the rapid development of ‘extremely effective and safe’ vaccines.
Horsham’s Lister House Clinic vaccinated almost 35,000 Wimmera people, alone.
Dr Grenfell said frontline health workers and people working to support others were ‘unsung heroes’ who, despite their high risk of infection, had ‘put their lives on the line’.
He said digital health reform – including digitally-supported health consults and electronic records – was a positive to emerge amid the challenges.
“What’s exciting is we haven’t gone back – and that allows rural or isolated people to get access to healthcare, and especially for vulnerable people in our community,” he said.
“We also rebuilt public health infrastructure, particularly in Victoria, that we didn’t have before and we’re in a better position than before the pandemic to respond to future public health challenges, including diabetes or heart disease.”
Lister House chief executive Amanda Wilson agreed the pandemic was a catalyst for health reform that had increased flexibility regarding delivery of care.
A ‘walk-in-and-wait’ clinic has replaced the former respiratory clinic in Baillie Street, where people can seek help for respiratory concerns along with ‘low level’ concerns where they cannot make a prompt GP appointment or do not require emergency attention. Visits might require a wait time and incur a fee; concession cardholders are bulk-billed. People are starting to access their fifth vaccination dose. PCR testing is also still available. “We still want people to know what they’ve got and how to treat it. Some people are still eligible for anti-virals and it could be the difference between them requiring a hospital visit themselves,” she said.
Government funding for the respiratory clinic dried up in February.
“We know our community needs are still there. We are still seeing 20 to 30 people a day, which is what we were doing MID-COVID, and that’s taking pressure off the emergency department,” Mrs Wilson said.