Message from the Publisher #023 – Australian Open in Covid normal Melbourne

Australian Open in Covid normal Melbourne

While vaccine programs are rolled out in different countries, more about Covid-19 and the vaccines are known.

South Africa announced it will suspend the use of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 shot in its vaccination programme after data showed it gave minimal protection against mild to moderate infection caused by the country’s dominant coronavirus variant.

Epidemiologists concluded that herd immunity might not be possible through vaccination if it is confirmed that the virus through mutation could find its way through the vaccination programs. In such a case, the impact of Covid-19 will not go away easily as some people have hoped. This means we shall be living in a long Covid normal state.

So it is now a time to look at how a Covid normal society may operate.

The Australian Open in progress suggests how a Covid normal society may function. Normal social, cultural, business, and community events should be continued but in great care. Yes, while there is little community transmission of the virus, we still need to quarantine against any virus coming from outside. As international players entering Melbourne, we need to pay a great cost to maintain Covidsafe for the event to be held. Hotel quarantine program needs to be efficient.

The players have paid the cost of allowing extra quarantine time to participate. The audience attending the event is limited to 30,000 per day which means that most people can only enjoy the matches through television and online.

The community will take some risk for the spread of the virus and need to be in alert for any possibility of community transmission. At this moment, two infections in the hotel quarantine program have leaked out to the community. Once they were discovered, strict isolation restrictions are imposed, contact tracing system activated, and fast testing programs are working together to control the spread of the virus.

It is through the collaboration of the whole society, our society can at least go back to a bit normal.

Raymond Chow

Publisher, BlessingCALD