‘Australian outbreaks result of prioritising economy over health’

CANBERRA: Australia’s December coronavirus outbreaks were the result of governments prioritising the economy over health, reported Xinhua news agency, quoting the nation’s peak medical body.

In a submission to a Senate inquiry into Australia’s ongoing response to Covid19, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) said that the government’s roadmap to re-open the economy by Christmas on Dec 25 resulted in “significant” outbreaks.

Omar Khorshid, the President of the AMA, told the inquiry that the body had written to Prime Minister (PM) Scott Morrison and state and territory leaders warning that the roadmap “prioritised economic success over health,” which it said at the time was the “wrong approach.”

“As we predicted, with this rush to open up it came as no surprise that we saw significant outbreaks and the framework had clearly failed to meet its stated goal of pretty normal by Christmas,” he said.

“Instead, we saw significant outbreaks and reintroduction of fairly harsh restrictions to certain areas of the country.”

More than 150 cases of Covid-19 across three states were linked to an outbreak of the virus in Sydney’s affluent northern beaches.

The cluster, which was first identified on Dec 16, led to restrictions and border closures being reimposed.

Khorshid said that Australia should pursue elimination of Covid-19 rather than suppression as more infectious strains of the virus emerge, saying that “the idea of Covidnormal is even more unrealistic than before.”

He also told the inquiry that the government has failed to protect healthcare workers during the pandemic, citing the Victorian outbreak in which “thousands of aged care, health care workers, doctors and nurses contracted the disease in the course of their normal work.”