A Wimmera-born public health and infectious disease expert is calling for the community not to get complacent in the fight against COVID, as he says the pandemic enters its "long game".
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This comes as the region experiences the peak of the latest COVID wave, with many local municipalities recording state-topping infection numbers.
The Wimmera Mail-Times spoke to Grampians Health chief strategy and regions officer Dr Rob Grenfell about this new stage of the pandemic, and what precautions we should take in response.
Prior to his role at Grampians Health, Dr Grenfell was the CSIRO's Director of Health and Biosecurity, and previously held positions as the National Director of Cardiovascular Health at the Heart Foundation, and Senior Medical Advisor at the Department of Health Victoria.
Vaccines
Dr Grenfell encouraged all who were eligible to get the fourth COVID vaccine dose, as immunity wanes across the state.
"What we have found is that initially, two doses worked very well against the early variants," he said.
"That started to drop after around about four to six months, so people needed a third dose.
"We have also found that immunity starts to wane again around the four to six-month mark with regards to any of the vaccines. That is why we now have a fourth dose."
Dr Grenfell said the fourth dose was critical as it reduced the chance of serious illness and hospitalisation.
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Hospitals which were under stress due to a vast increase of presentations, both COVID and non-COVID related.
"Like all hospitals across the country, if not the world, our health services are stretched beyond capacity, and that is what is happening across Australia," he said.
"What that means is a combination of people with COVID, a combination of people with diseases that haven't been treated over the past two and a half years, and also the flu, our emergency departments are being challenged.
"Our hospitalisation rates are also on the increase. Add to this the fact that most people would know that around about 20 per cent of their fellow workers are not at work, and that is the same in hospitals.
"Trying to staff our hospitals with 20 per cent less staff and increased demand is very challenging."
Mask up
Dr Grenfell said one simple behaviour people could do to reduce the spread and take the pressure off of hospitals was to return to wearing masks in public settings.
"Masks as a public health measure are effective in decreasing your chance of catching the virus, and also if you happen to have the virus, of spreading it," he said.
"It is really an important part of controlling the spread."
Despite sometimes conflicting advice on where mask should be worn, Dr Grenfell said he had a simple rule to follow for best practice.
"If you are going to be mixing with people who are not from your household for an extended period of time, you should be wearing a mask," he said.
"If you are at the supermarket, or at meetings, you should really be wearing a mask because they are an important way of reducing the spread of COVID."
Anti-virals
A range of anti-viral treatments has been made available to eligible COVID-positive people.
The anti-virals come in capsule or tablet form and have been found to be effective in reducing the severity of COVID infection.
Dr Grenfell said it was important to access the anti-virals early in the infection period - which required registering an infection with the Victorian government.
"If you are eligible for anti-viral drugs, and many in our community are, the sooner you get those the greater the chance you will reduce the severity of the disease," he said.
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"The combination of up-to-date vaccines and anti-viral drugs is very, very effective at reducing the severity of the disease, and we have already experienced how strong they are in our region.
"Anyone who has got serious medical conditions should have already had a conversation with their doctor.
"If you have mild symptoms, that is when you do a RAT and if it is positive, you should be reporting that to the government line, and you will be contacted if you fit in our priority one to two groups, and then you will be given the antiviral.
"They only work if you are given them at the start of the disease."
Long game
Dr Grenfell said it was important for people to stay aware, and make sure they were up to date with their vaccine doses.
"The pandemic is entering what we call the long game. The virus is twisting and turning. We are very lucky that we have drugs and anti virals that work, but people need to get their vaccines up to date," he said.
"People who have elderly relatives, many of them aren't able to use the internet. So when they do turn positive, really do assist them in reporting their positive test because they will almost certainly qualify for anti-virals and will get a very good benefit from having them.
"If you have symptoms you need to stay home and you need to test yourself. If you test negative and you have symptoms, you still stay at home because you have something that you could spread to your colleagues and school."
For more information, visit https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/.