Everything those working with Australian Aboriginals have dreaded has become a reality.
The deadly Delta variant has reached outback towns of NSW killing a 50 year-old Dubbo man with underlying conditions. He was unvaccinnated like many other’s in the western NSW towns suffering rising Covid infections. Of the current 561 cases in the region 65 per cent of them are Aboriginal.
The vaccination roll out has been slow with only 6.3 per cent of Aboriginals in the region being vaccinated versus 26 per cent of the general population.
“It’s ripping through the community like wildfire at the moment, which is really, really scary,” Quayle said.
“As a Barkinji woman, this was my worst nightmare for it to ever hit my community, especially when we know the statistics and the early death rates of our mob due to colonial disease.
“It’s heartbreaking. I just hope my mob can get through this. It’s so scary it feels like a nightmare.”
(from Chloe Quayle, also known as Barkaa, described the devastating impacts of the virus on the regional town of Wilcannia, in western NSW, to ABC‘s The World Today program.)
On top of battling rising Covid cases there is a growing food shortage in places like Wilcannia which is 200km from the closest big community. One family was told to “Go call Uber eats”. @NITV @twitter
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