Failure 2: hotel quarantine was a debacle The pandemic has highlighted the vital role public health plays in keeping the community safe and healthy, so it needs adequate resources in future. While resources were poured into the department to cope with the unprecedented demands during the pandemic and some structural changes were made – most notably the creation of local public health units – more work undoubtedly needs to be done. The health department had been depleted over many years by both sides of politics and it clearly entered the pandemic under-resourced. It was no surprise for those of us familiar with the Victorian health department that at times it struggled to cope during the pandemic. Failure 1: the Victorian public health system was exposed Regardless of your political stripes, or whether you felt all of the calls Victorian health authorities made were always the right ones, no one can doubt the commitment of the government and health authorities to get Victoria through the pandemic, and to communicate with Victorians.įronting up to press conferences day after day and answering all of the tough questions was important for many reasons.īut most importantly it kept the community focused on what was needed to bring the virus under control. Success 3: determined commitment from our leaders This resulted in the state being able to emerge from the final lockdown five days ahead of schedule and the return of freedoms so desperately desired. What does is Victorians got vaccinated at a rate that surpassed all expectations. Whether the period spent in lockdown – and the desire to do anything it took to avoid more of the same – was a motivating factor, or whether there were other reasons for this, does not really matter.
It has fully vaccinated over 92% of those aged 12 and above at the time of writing. The uptake of COVID vaccines by Victorians was nothing short of remarkable. Success 2: the uptake of the vaccine was incredible The fact this didn’t happen should make Victorians extremely proud. It would have been so easy to lose hope and stop complying with the tough restrictions en masse, especially as Victorians navigated their way through lockdown six, arguably the toughest to endure. Victorians displayed enough collective adhesion to the strict public health orders that were in place to make those orders effective. Living in Victoria the last couple of years has been really tough.ĭespite enduring one of the longest aggregate periods of strict lockdown in the world, the Victorian community by and large hung in there. Success 1: Victorians followed the rules and ‘stayed the course’ With that in mind, let’s look at what went right, and wrong, in Victoria amid the pandemic so far. Decisions had to be made quickly, often with only limited and uncertain evidence, and most importantly, without the all-knowing benefit of hindsight. Context is important and needs to be factored into any critique. In doing this, the objective is not to blame. While we should celebrate what went right, it’s much more important we look fearlessly at what could have been done differently. Victoria indisputably went through the toughest ordeal of any state in the country. It’s important to appreciate the experiences across the states and territories in the pandemic have been as different as Swan Lager is to Victoria Bitter.
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