Denise Goldmann – HSIE Teacher & Outreach Co-ordinator

Closing the COVID gap

As this week we celebrate ‘Freedom Day’ in NSW and double vaccinated people return to enjoy pre-lockdown freedoms we should consider that this may look different across communities in NSW.

According to ABC news, Indigenous people’s vaccination rates are about 15 per cent behind the rest of Western NSW region’s population. Moreover, nine First Nations people have died due to the virus since the Delta outbreak.

In communities such as Wilcannia, in the far-east of NSW close to Broken Hill, the number of cases in the remote far western NSW has surpassed 100. There are only 745 people living in the community in total, and more than 60 per cent of them are Indigenous. The community of Wilcannia has basic health facilities that are not suited for a suitable COVID response, including staffing problems and a disproportionate high chronic disease rate and a low vaccine uptake. Although there has been a government response and funds have been sent to the area it has felt more of a reactive than proactive approach to Indigenous people’s health.

The way COVID-19 is affecting Indigenous communities is not surprising. Aboriginal health services predicted last year that if the virus entered Aboriginal communities, it would be disastrous. The outbreak has brought to centre stage the existing gap in NSW between remote and urban communities as well as Indigenous and Non-Indigenous communities.

For more information of remote Indigenous communities affected by COVID-19 you can watch COVID crisis in Wilcannia – SBS on demand