For a long time, Australia’s natives were spared Covid-19. The small towns in the outback were considered isolated and safe. But the delta variant has changed everything – with dire consequences.
Several dozen mobile homes are in the village of Wilcannia in the middle of the outback, in the poorly populated west of the state of New South Wales. They house contact persons of those who have been infected with Covid-19.
The regional government provided them to bring the situation back under control. “We have 650 residents and a total of 146 corona cases, 37 of which are currently infected,” says Jenny Thwaites, managing director of the Wilcannia Local Aboriginal Land Council, the German press agency. About 70 percent of the population are indigenous.
The situation is difficult: Wilcannia is cut off in the desert. It is almost 200 kilometers to the next larger town, Broken Hill, and almost 1,000 kilometers to Sydney. The place only has a small hospital. Covid patients with severe courses are flown to Broken Hill or the South Australian city of Adelaide by the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
Crisis for the indigenous infected
Monica Kerwin, an indigenous resident who is active in emergency management, published a video on Facebook at the end of August in which she denounced the precarious situation for indigenous infected people in the village. She had already warned last year that there could be a crisis in remote outback places like Wilcannia. “At that time I had the feeling that nobody was listening and really interested in our opinion,” she told ABC.
Wilcannia is not an isolated case. In Enngonia, another outback community on the Queensland border, 30 percent of the residents were infected within three weeks between August and September. The outbreaks highlight a larger structural problem that exists in many outback locations: housing shortages. The result is overcrowded accommodations. “Ten people live here in a house that is intended for four people,” says Jenny Thwaites. The virus can spread easily there.
The housing shortage is an old problem, but one that is emerging again as a result of the pandemic. The infection rate is particularly high in overcrowded houses and it is hardly possible to isolate the sick. The 30 mobile homes made available by the state initially provide a remedy, but are not a permanent solution. “We hope that the attention our place is getting right now leads to more investment in the construction of accommodation,” says Thwaites.
Vulnerable population group
Also from a medical point of view, Australia’s indigenous people are more at risk than the non-indigenous population. A study conducted by the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra recently confirmed that Aboriginal people need to be prioritized as a group in the vaccination program. “The risk of a severe course of the disease is higher in this population group,” explains Dr. Jason Agostino, general practitioner and epidemiologist at ANU.
“Indigenous Australians are more likely to suffer from diabetes and chronic heart or kidney disease. And we know that people with previous illnesses are particularly at risk from a corona infection. ” In addition, indigenous people developed the diseases on average 20 years earlier than non-indigenous people.
As a medical advisor to the Aboriginal community-run health organization NACCHO, Agostino has followed Australia’s battle against the pandemic from the start. In his opinion, could the Aboriginal outbreaks have been prevented? “At the beginning of the pandemic, entire places in the outback were closed to protect the indigenous population so that no one from the outside could get in,” he explains. That protected the natives for a long time. But in June the situation changed because of the contagious Delta variant: The number of indigenous Covid infected people Down Under quickly rose to 150, and there are now over 2500 cases.
The vaccination campaign is sluggish
In Wilcannia, as in other places, the main focus has been on isolating the infected and preventing further infections within the community. But a long-term solution can only bring about a quick, nationwide vaccination campaign. Although Aborigines had access to vaccines as a prioritized group from the start, research by the Australian Guardian at the beginning of September showed that the vaccination rate for non-indigenous Australians is up to 20 percentage points higher than for indigenous people. Reason: misinformation and skepticism contributed to vaccination fatigue and, especially in Covid-free areas, the need for a vaccination was not recognized for a long time. The government now wants to close the gap as soon as possible.
“We are determined and want vaccination rates to reach or even exceed the national target,” Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt wrote in a statement. Together with the Minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt, NACCHO and other health services run by Aborigines, the agency wants to massively promote vaccinations even in the most remote places in the outback. A campaign led by indigenous media services is intended to broaden the discourse about the vaccination program and to convey a positive feeling about the vaccine. In Wilcannia, too, vaccinations are already increasing after the outbreak.
Health workers and police officers were sent to the outback to provide support. Jenny Thwaites is grateful for the help: “For the first time in a long time, I have the feeling that we are not being completely neglected.” However, the housing shortage will continue for the time being. Thwaites hopes the pandemic will ultimately bring real change – and the attention the place is getting right now will also lead to more investment in housing construction. “Covid has shed light on problems that have long been ignored or swept under the carpet,” she says.
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