Australian Medical Association Warns The Hospital System Is Unprepared For Easing COVID-19 Lockdown

Illustration of an area in New South Wales, Australia. (Wikimedia Commons/Kgbo)

JAKARTA - Australian doctors warned on Thursday that the country's hospitals were not prepared to cope with the government's planned reopening, even with higher vaccination rates, as some states prepare to shift from virus suppression strategies to living with COVID-19.

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) said the health system was in danger of being locked into a permanent crisis cycle, calling for new modeling to examine whether staffing levels in hospitals could contain a surge in COVID-19 infections, as lockdowns eased.

"If you've opened up and haven't seen the safety nets or life rafts that we have, we might end up trying to push more people onto the life rafts and turn them over", AMA Vice President Chris Moy told broadcaster ABC, cited from Reuters, Thursday, September 2.

Australia in July unveiled a four-stage plan to return to greater freedom, when the country achieves 70 percent - 80 percent vaccination. But virus-free Queensland and Western Australia have said they may not follow the plan, as the deal was made at a time when cases of COVID-19 infections in New South Wales were much lower.

New South Wales on Thursday reported 1.288 new locally acquired cases, just below Monday's pandemic high of 1.290, recording seven new deaths.

A total of 957 people were hospitalized, up from 698 a week ago, while cases in the intensive care unit (ICU) jumped nearly 40 percent to 160.64 of whom required ventilation.

Australian authorities doubled the state's number of intensive care ventilators to 2.000 early last year, but Moy's medical association said the government needed to focus on hospital staff before easing lockdown rules.

"It's not just the number of ventilators, not the number of IC units, but the number of staff and people who have to handle this when we open", he said.

Meanwhile, soaring Cases forced Victoria on Wednesday to join New South Wales in abandoning its COVID-19 zero target, with both states now targeting rapid vaccination, having previously failed to quell outbreaks of the Delta variant, including after weeks of lockdown.

New cases in Victoria jumped to 176 on Thursday, the biggest daily increase this year, from 120 the day before. In total, Australia has recorded 56.500 cases of infection with 1.019 deaths since the COVID-19 pandemic.

As for vaccination, so far Australia has only about 36 percent of people over 16 years of age who have received the full COVID-19 vaccine, far below most comparable countries.