The ACT Government is working with community partners to support Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander people through the impacts of the current COVID-19 outbreak.
There have now been 197 cases in the ACT’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community during the latest outbreak.
Eleven per cent of all cases in the ACT during this outbreak have identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander and 151 (or 77 per cent) of these were unvaccinated, 63 of whom were under 12 years old and therefore not yet eligible.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people represented 1.6 per cent of the population in the 2016 Census.
Minister for Health Rachel Stephen-Smith acknowledged that the COVID-19 outbreak has had a disproportionate effect on the ACT’s Indigenous community.
She noted the ACT Government is working with community partners, including Winnunga Nimmityjah, Gugan Gulwan and Yeddung Mura to enable culturally responsive support for the community.
“ACT Health is providing specific support to the community through culturally safe pop-up vaccination clinics and in-reach testing. There have also been targeted communication activities encouraging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to get vaccinated.”
CEO of Winnunga Nimmityjah, Julie Tongs, said the Aboriginal health service no longer requires appointments for vaccination.
“You can just come in to Winnunga whenever you can,” Ms Tongs said.
“Getting our mob vaccinated is now the most important thing we can do to protect our families and community. Remember that vaccination prevents serious illness related to COVID-19.”
All information regarding COVID-19 in the ACT and support specific to the Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander Community can be found here.
It comes as the ACT recorded eight cases in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.
At present, there are 153 active cases and seven people in ACT hospitals with or due to COVID-19, four in intensive care, all ventilated.
Case numbers during the outbreak have decreased significantly over the last fortnight.
In the past week just 61 cases were recorded, compared to 131 cases the week prior and 230 cases two weeks ago.
The five-day rolling average of daily cases (by diagnosis date) reached a peak of just over 40 on 1 October. This has continued to decrease since then and is now under 5.
Authorities believe the drop-off is due to “a mix of both” high vaccination rates and lower testing numbers.
The daily number of tests over the past week has been between 1,000 and 2,000 per day.
As of today, 93.2 per cent of the ACT’s eligible population has been fully vaccinated.
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