after a local man tested positive following his release from Bathurst jail."People just don't know what's gonna happen. They're very tough these people out here, they handle just about everything, but when something sneaks up on you like this, it's a whole different ball game," Mr Beale said.
"We'll be doing the best we can. We want to try and keep people on country if we can, but at the same time it's going to be what's best for them for medical treatment," acting chief executive officer of Walgett's Aboriginal Medical Service Katrina Ward said. The AMS is planning to get vaccinations out to even smaller communities beyond Walgett, and will be able to double its amount of testing after securing a COVID-19 testing machine.
Additional Pfizer doses are being fast-tracked to the region and mobile crews will be in Walgett and surrounding towns to administer them."There's no sort of protection for us," Aunty Mary Dennis Kennedy said.Aunty Mary Dennis Kennedy says the pace of the vaccine rollout in Indigenous communities is "heartbreaking"."[They're] scared and I don't blame them… they're the ones more at risk — the elderly, the Aboriginal elders," she said.
"The ACCHS [Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services] are providing an excellent service to our communities and have ensured that, to date, not a single Indigenous Australian has died from COVID-19," he said.
Why are aboriginal people more susceptible to covid19?
Leadership issues are responsible for this situation. It's time for aboriginal leaders to stop spending time complaining and trying to affix blame elsewhere and get moving to get their people vaccinated.
If only they had vaccines allocated to regional areas of NSW.