Delta variant has rebooted Covid-19
What has happened around the world and Australia has suggested that the Delta variant has rebooted Covid-19.
A few weeks ago, we have seen that with vaccination slowly took place in different countries, the number of infected had decreased. However, we now see a resurge of the number of infected in the UK, Russia and some European countries, and the Delta variant is now the dominant strain. One dose of vaccine is not ineffective in control the spread of this variant. It is believed that a full vaccination of two doses would work, but we are still not very sure yet.
In Victoria has survived the fourth lockdown and the spread of the virus under control. Delta variant was found but its spread contained through fast testing, contact tracing together with isolation. The suppression strategy in NSW seems to be not working and the situation has now gone into a total lockdown for the Greater Sydney, Wollongong and nearby regions for at least two weeks. We pray that the situation can be controlled and the virus contained.
The virus is entering other states including NT, Queensland and Western Australia. Most states are no longer clean from Covid-19 and are still unsure whether the spread of the virus can be contained or not. It is now very clear that full vaccination of the Australians is the only way out.
However, we do not have enough vaccines shortly and it will take many more months to have more Pfizer and other approved vaccines to arrive in Australia as the locally produced AstraZeneca is planned to retire due to security reasons. The federal government must speed up its acquisition of vaccines from overseas and strengthen its delivery system so that the situation in Australia will not worsen.
A must overcome obstacle is vaccine hesitancy resulted from the failure of communicating correct information about the different vaccines and their importance in this battle, especially among CALD communities. The federal government must change its attitude to be more proactive.
Raymond Chow
Publisher, Blessing CALD