WE are living in extraordinary times.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the coronavirus a pandemic, which in simple terms is a global outbreak of a serious new illness for which people don’t have immunity.
It’s rapidly evolving and panic has set in across the planet. Cities are being virtually shut down, professional sport is being played in front of empty stadiums, the NBA season has been suspended, borders have been closed, share markets are plunging, In Australia, toilet paper is difficult to buy.
This time last year, if you had been told someone had been struck down with coronavirus, you would have guessed that meant the person had consumed a few too many Mexican beers.
But here we are now, faced with a global crisis that is certainly no laughing matter.
It’s times like these that strong leadership is required.
This week, the Federal Government announced a stimulus package that includes cash injections for small and medium-sized businesses, which is a positive step to help alleviate some of the panic that businesses are feeling.
A strong calming influence and clear direction is needed.
And as citizens we need to heed that advice. Control what we can control.
There are practical measures you can take to protect yourself from the virus, such as keeping at least one metre between yourself and anyone who is coughing or sneezing, but it doesn’t mean we can’t go out and have a coffee in a local cafe.
Here in Sunraysia, that places us in a healthy position.
If we are all vigilant in following the necessary precautions, then our isolation works for us, not against us.
For starters, we don’t commute to work on trains that are filled to capacity. We are not rubbing shoulders and bumping into others crossing busy city intersections.
Up here, we have the luxury of space.
WHO said that using the word pandemic did not change its advice on how countries should respond to the coronavirus outbreak. It does, however, stress the importance of countries working together to bring the situation under control.
The city of Wuhan, China, where Covid-19 started, waited weeks before acknowledging human-to-human transmission and taking measures to control it. Wuhan thus experienced an out-of-control epidemic that overwhelmed the health care system. The city felt these effects for weeks after intense control measures were in place, as newly infected people got sick and required care.
Other cities in China watched Wuhan’s experience and imposed strict controls at a much earlier stage in their epidemic: They closed schools, sharply limited social contact, and traced and isolated cases and contacts. These early interventions dramatically slowed transmission.
No other Chinese city has repeated Wuhan’s horrific experience so far. Now other hotspots of known transmission, including Iran and Italy, are tightly restricting social contact, but these interventions are coming late and hospitals are teetering under the stress.
At a basic level, social distancing means keeping sick people home and out of contact with healthy as well as vulnerable people.
It also means healthy people distance themselves by avoiding crowded or public places. It’s intended to slow down the spread of the virus so that it doesn’t overwhelm the health system all at once.
We all need to play our part in this, but that doesn’t mean we have to stop living. It doesn’t stop us going out and shopping at our local businesses, who in the current economic climate, need our support more than ever.
I sat down and had a coffee with local businessman Don Carrazza this week, soaking in the magnificent Mildura weather under some rich, green vines.
Don suggested with all the international travel bans being enforced, and with the cheap petrol prices on offer, an opportunity exists for tourism in Mildura to cash in with the domestic market.
It’s a fair point.
With what is going on all around the world, this place, particularly in autumn, remains a breath of fresh air.
