Front Burner - Life under Melbourne’s stringent COVID-19 lockdown

Episode Date: August 10, 2020

The city of Melbourne, Australia, is currently under some of the world's strictest pandemic lockdown measures. Residents have to be home by 8 p.m., and anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 can expect frequent, unannounced visits by police to ensure they're staying home. Today, on Front Burner, we speak to Melissa Davey, Australian bureau chief for The Guardian, to find out how a country — one that had so quickly flattened the curve early on in the pandemic — is now in the grips of a second wave of COVID-19.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, I'm Michelle Shepard. I'm one of the hosts of the CBC podcast series Uncover, and I have a new series launching this September on CIA covert experiments called Brainwashed. This week, I'll be filling in for FrontBurner, and I'm happy to be here. Okay, let's get to it. Cities across Canada are reopening right now, but in Melbourne, Australia, it's a very different story.

Stage four is here, our COVID hell far from over. Victoria is this very minute entering a state of disaster. Never in Australia's history has there been a lockdown as extreme as this. Melbourne, now a ghost town, as nearly five million of the city's residents wake up to a situation which will become their new norm. The City of Melbourne has imposed some of the strictest lockdown measures in the world because of COVID-19.

Police are patrolling the city streets and issuing fines if you can't prove you have a legitimate reason to be out. Anyone who tests positive for COVID can expect unannounced visits by authorities to ensure they're staying home. And everyone faces an 8pm curfew. This is not a popularity contest. This is a global pandemic. We're going to get this job done. I'm deeply grateful to every Victorian who's playing their part. And to those who aren't, I've got a clear message.

If you're not following the rules, you'll be caught and you will be punished. It's a surprise to many that things have come to this. Early in the crisis, Australia was a leader when it came to controlling the spread. By April, when Canada's COVID numbers were steadily increasing, Australia seemed to have a handle on the virus. They flattened their curve. But in the past few weeks, the country's numbers started climbing. On Sunday, Australia recorded its highest single-day COVID-19 death toll,

and many experts fear it could get much worse. Today, I'm talking to Melissa Davey about all this. She is the Australia Bureau Chief for The Guardian newspaper based in Melbourne. This is FrontBurner. Hi, Melissa. Thank you for joining us today. Thank you for having me. So we've reached you in Melbourne, which, we've heard is the epicenter of Australia's second wave in this pandemic, and that the city is on stringent lockdown, which I want to hear about in a bit. But just to get us there, let's go back a few months. Both Australia and Canada

discovered their first COVID cases on January 25th. What action did Australia take in those early days? One of the things that we did very quickly was to implement this program called Hotel Quarantine. And that was in response to the fact that the majority of Australia's cases were coming from overseas. So either people returning to Australia after traveling or travelers coming here on holiday or business. traveling or travelers coming here on holiday or business. And so what we did is we decided to make it a rule that anyone coming to Australia from overseas, whether they were Australians or not, had to go straight to a hotel where they were in isolation for 14 days. These hotels were guarded around Australia. So they were either monitored by

Australian Defence Force personnel or police or, as was the case in Victoria, security officers. And that meant that we could contain the virus very, very quickly because we effectively cut off the main source of spread. And when you have people in hotels like that, they're very easy to monitor. It's very easy to test them, to identify cases, and then to do the contact tracing as well. So that was one of the things we did very, very quickly, and it worked very quickly as well. We know that what we've been doing has been working for some time, but this is the strongest indication yet that Australia is getting a handle on this virus. The increases are small,

and that should be a point of pride for every Victorian. The strategy's working. We now have a sustained and genuine flattening of the curve. So initially when we decided to implement various measures like social distancing and hotel quarantine, there was talk that that could continue for six months, those kind of measures. But by May, so just a couple of months later, Australia was talking about opening up again in a kind of staged process. What happened

then? Because you were able to flatten the curve. And I remember as our numbers here in Canada were going up, we were looking to Australia and seeing that happen. And then that changed. What led to that change? What we first knew was that by the end of June, something very different was going on in Victoria. For a couple of weeks from around mid-June, there were double digit rises in cases. So we were talking, you know, 15 cases and then 20 something cases. And it was, it seemed kind of low, but when you looked at the rest of Australia that had no new cases in some states week after week, then it was kind of at least worth noting. At that point, some of those cases were returned travelers. So we weren't too worried about those. But in those

numbers were some cases that were unable to be immediately identified. And what happened was that crept up and up. And then by the end of June, we had about 75 new cases announced. That was on the 29th of June, which was one of the largest overnight jumps for the state since the pandemic began. I mean, and when, you know, 75 new cases rings alarm bells, I guess that shows just how successfully Australia was handling the virus overall. So many people were trying to identify a source of blame for the spread. But what eventually came out was that this hotel quarantine program had a serious mistake in Victoria. Hotel quarantine. It was meant to keep COVID out. Instead, it's been the source of Victoria's second wave. We were trying to control the virus, but the way they have done everything,

I think we were spreading the virus, not controlling the virus. What had happened was a couple of security guards had mingled with the travellers and they were travellers that were COVID-19 positive. There were some reports that the security guards slept with a couple of the returned travellers and then they went out into the community, they went into their home suburbs and the security guards spread this virus. If you can imagine all of the places you might go before you get tested, before you know you've got the virus, before it gets detected, before authorities detect it, that's a lot of opportunity for spread. And it was just that one breach, I suppose, that really sparked a lot of this second wave in outbreak. I have announced a full inquiry. A former judge will look at that matter and get us the answers

that we need. These breaches are unacceptable to me. They're unacceptable to all Victorians. That's happened, though. I can't change that. All I can do is respond to the problem. Beyond this particular case with the hotel, were there any other issues of community transmission? Was it solely based on that and these security guards that became, you know, sort of these super spreaders? Or were there other factors at play that can account for the rise? There were definitely other factors at play. I mean, you have to say that with a virus like this, and a lot of the experts I'm speaking to say that some of it is just really bad luck. You know, you can have a case that spreads in other areas and it just doesn't spread quite so far.

So a bit of a slug or bad luck, I should say. Another aspect is that when these security guards went back to their homes, they lived in areas where you often had quite a lot of family members living under the same roof. So we know different socioeconomic areas. You might have larger families. You might have grandma and grandpa living under the same roof. You might have families visiting other big families as well. So it led to this spread amongst family groups as well. But then something really terrible happened, and we see this around the world. It got into aged

care. And once it gets into the aged care system, it just spreads like wildfire. And that's been one of the most cruel and difficult things that Victoria has had to deal with and is still dealing with right now. How after three deaths in the one home do you still then wait almost a week before conducting tests on all residents? It should have been done after the first death a month ago. That's what the family said to me or at least after the second. We need answers badly straight away not today we want it today not tomorrow you know we need something not today. We want it today, not tomorrow. You know, we need something done today, not tomorrow. We can't wait till tomorrow. That's certainly been the case here in Canada. I believe it's more than 80% of our COVID-19 deaths have happened in these types of facilities. But in the early days in Australia, that didn't seem

to be an issue for you. And there's been some comparisons being done between how we handle it here in Canada, in terms of our long term care facilities, and how Australia handled it. Was there a change over time in why they didn't get these cases in the facilities at the beginning? And then why you have it so badly now? A couple of things are at play. So first of all, aged care did have outbreaks. It was mainly in New South Wales at the beginning of the pandemic, so around Sydney, and a cruise ship docked in New South Wales near Sydney very early on in the pandemic, and that did lead to some uncontained spread. And it got into nursing homes, a couple in particular. One was called the Dorothy Henderson Lodge and it was devastating, but we very quickly recognised that that was an issue.

And at the same time, at that point, there were still a lot of cases in returned travellers. We shut that off. We did the hotel quarantine. We stopped flights from returning. All of those measures. The difficulty with this particular outbreak in Victoria is that the spread is different. The origin is different. So it's not being caused by those returned travellers. So simply cutting off travellers or, you know, even taking a close look at hotel quarantine and making sure people go there, it's too late. It's already out in the community. So we have had much more widespread proliferation of the virus through

aged care homes. It's not just one or two. It's many, many aged care homes now. The other factor is that it's been exacerbated by a very casual, insecure workforce. And this is a national issue in Australia. And this was an issue long before the virus. But what this virus does is that it kind of highlights issues and really puts the spotlight on them, issues that were around long before the virus was a problem. We have people who, in order to make ends meet, need to work across different aged care homes. They can't just work one job. Those people often don't have very good paid leave entitlements.

They don't have sick leave entitlements. So if they're sick, they keep working. They can't afford to stay home or to get a COVID test and then wait for the result of that test. And so this insecure workforce has really been a topic of national focus here. And that's another factor that's really led to a lot of this second wave, as we call it. For me, it kind of feels like this epic marathon and a lot of the other restaurateurs that I speak to feel pretty much the same, that there's this kind of ever-changing landscape that we're having to face. It's not just how it will affect us now,

it's how it will affect us in the future. You know, everyone's got rent to pay. There's a sense of devastation. I think people are genuinely concerned about how long that they can continue to operate. to impart by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. Hi, it's Ramit Sethi here. You may have seen my money show on Netflix. I've been talking about money for 20 years. I've talked to millions of people and I have some startling numbers to share with you. Did you know that of the people I speak to, 50% of them do not know their own household income. That's not a typo, 50%.

That's because money is confusing. In my new book and podcast, Money for Couples, I help you and your partner create a financial vision together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Couples. Obviously, the situation there is very dire and people are worried about what's coming next. But Australia's numbers are actually kind of incredibly small compared to much of the rest of the world. Even in Canada, our population, I guess, about 12 million more than Australia. But we've had over 9,000 COVID-related deaths and Australia has had about 300.

Considering that, why are these very strict measures being brought in and what are experts saying the risks are with this second wave? How are they saying how bad this could get? Now that we have this strict, what we call stage four lockdown in most of the state, the entire state is either in stage three or stage four lockdowns, stage four being a little bit more strict. There is a lot of talk that the numbers should come down within about 10 to 14 days. If we had stayed as we were before, so with most of the state

under just stage three lockdowns, there was talk that we wouldn't start seeing a drop in cases for about six or seven months. We would have maintained this four or 500 cases a day total. Now, what governments look at is really how can the health system cope? What numbers are required for the health system to feel overwhelmed? And already we have something terrible happening in the healthcare system. We thought at the beginning of this pandemic that our problem was going to be intensive care beds and the number of ventilators. And in fact, we've all been blindsided by the fact that our problem is workforce. There are 994 healthcare workers who have the infection as I speak to you.

That's just the ones with an active infection. Many, many more are now at home isolating because they've been in contact with a healthcare worker, one of their colleagues. So the health system can't cope with a lot of cases. And that's what authorities were worried about. It doesn't really matter what's happening everywhere else in the world or how many cases or deaths are of concern elsewhere. Can our health system cope? And it was very clear that our health system was not going to cope. If this virus gets out of control, then no amount of preparation will have us ready. And that's when the risks will go up for everyone, not just health workers, but particularly for patients.

So it really means that every single Victorian, even people in Sydney, we all have to be incredibly careful and we have to do all of the right things. Melbourne's been in stage four lockdown now for about a week. Can you describe what it's like living in those circumstances under those types of strict measures? Yeah, it's a really good question because initially Australia was kind of all in lockdown at the same time or, you know, different states and territories were doing things slightly differently depending on their numbers. But overall, it was very much, it felt like it was a very similar approach. But we've seen these kind of isolating of different suburbs, different areas in Victoria.

And now Victoria is kind of very different to the rest of Australia, which is opening up. I mean, if you look at somewhere like Western Australia, people are living like normal. They're going to the beach. They're going to the gym. There are some restrictions still in place, but compared to what we're under here, it's very different. So there's less of a feeling that nationally we're all in it together.

The newest measures in Victoria as well are ripping about 10 billion out of the nation's economy. Now what that means is a lot of job losses, it means a lot of pain, a lot of unemployment and there's a mental health crisis going on here right now. I mean on Sunday the Premier Daniel Andrews announced a massive mental health package for the state. People aren't coping. So this is the moment where we have to support each other. Mental health is an immensely important thing and recognising that so many people are going through perhaps the most difficult time in their lives. I think the mental health fallout is a scary one and I think we're going to see it unfold and of course once your mental health is affected it has long-term ramifications.

The number of people presenting to emergency departments for self-harm across all age groups is up 9.5 percent on the same time last year. There's been a particularly sharp rise in young people so people under 18 that's up 33 percent people are struggling with remote learning if you're someone that is vulnerable you're not having access to the same support services and the same people it's really really tough people are losing their jobs we're seeing for sale or auction signs on businesses. Even when I go for my hour of exercise that I'm allowed each day within a five kilometre radius, I notice each day a different auction sign up on a business. So it's changing neighbourhoods. Some will have to modify their operations and some will have to close down altogether. It will mean

potentially thousands of more Victorian jobs will go. The next six weeks are going to be hard, but I guess the last three or four months are going to be hard. We'll do everything we possibly can for our staff members. We want to keep them employed. But yeah, there's just a lot of uncertainty and a lot of anxiety within small business at the moment. These businesses won't bounce back. There'll be no reopening in a few weeks time. And I guess that's what's changed, right? Like the first time around, it felt like that, although there were some businesses who would be permanently harmed, overall, it felt like a short-term thing that many would bounce back. They'd go to takeaway for a while, or they would just move to online and then things would get back on track.

And there's this feeling now that will we ever get back on track? Not when, but will we? The measures in place are unprecedented in your state. I noted Victoria's Chief Medical Officer, Brett Sutton, described the measures as shock and awe, which is interesting because it's such a militaristic reference. Some shock and awe here for people to genuinely understand that it's a super challenging phase that we're in. And I wonder, with these curfews and increased patrolling, if there are those there who are worried about civil liberties and this type of police and

military presence? Absolutely. I wrote a story about this, actually, speaking to different public health experts, infectious disease experts, about whether there's any evidence that, you know, fines, lockdowns, curfews will have any impact on this virus, especially when you consider what's driving it, which is an insecure workforce. So these measures won't change that. The other thing is, is that this virus is really out of control in aged care and it's really out of control in healthcare. Those people still have to work. Those people still have to go in and care for COVID-19 patients. So unless you really start honing in on those different workplaces, it will be difficult. However, we do know that measures like social distancing,

shutting down, you know, businesses, making sure people stay inside, getting tested, hand washing. They are very effective and they are expected to bring the virus numbers down. There's no question that those measures were needed. Whether or not sending out police is the right way to do it, that's what's under question. At the moment, if you test positive for COVID-19, you can expect random door knocks from police or the Australian Defence Force. If you're not home, you're referred to police. So if they're not at home, they'll be subject to a $5,000 fine. And if the matter goes to court, the maximum penalty is around the $20,000 mark.

They will be subject to repeated random door knocks, and that's going to apply to their close contacts as well. If you are outside and you're not wearing a mask or if you're out when you shouldn't be because you've got COVID-19, you face a $5,000 fine which is unprecedented. It's the highest fine you can get for an individual on the spot fine in the state. So there is some talk from some people that perhaps this will deter people from getting tested. If you get tested and you test positive and then you're in the health system and you can expect people to knock at your door, you're subject to fines, then that may be a

deterrent. And I think that there is real concern about that approach. But we know that when governments are under pressure and when you're the only state in the entirety of Australia that's struggling with COVID-19, you are a government under pressure. They revert back to law and order. It's a tale as old as time. And that's what we're seeing as part of the response right now. You know, I know, Melissa, here personally, we're in summer months and you're in winter there. And already I'm panicking about the winter months and what that means in terms of isolation. Has that impacted at all the change in seasons in terms of entering phase four at this time? Yeah, it does in a couple of ways. I mean, we're still learning about how this virus

acts and whether or not perhaps the spread is worse or more severe in winter. So that's one element, but also the mental health element. I mean, Melbourne is such a cultural, vibrant city. It's known for its theatre and its plays and its sports and its bars and its restaurants. And that's kind of how we collectively cope with winter in Victoria. We huddle together in bars or we go to the football and we sit in these large sporting venues all huddled together. And it's such a different place when you can't do any of that. It's just grey and cold. And I think that plays into the mental health as well. We are known here in this state for having a really vibrant arts sector. That sector has been decimated with COVID-19. So again, I just wonder whether we'll be the same city once we

come out of all of this. Melissa, thanks so much for joining us today. Thank you for having me. And before we go, some Canadian COVID-19 news. On Saturday, thousands of people marched through the streets of Montreal to protest the province's rules requiring masks to be worn in any indoor public spaces. They carried signs and chanted slogans about how they felt like mandatory masks infringed on their freedom. From their own liberty, so the idea of it's their own body, their own choice, and the government should stay away from that, to various disbelief of actual the severeness of the COVID-19 pandemic. This comes at a time when, according to Quebec's public health director, Dr. Horatio Arruda, the province is on the cusp of its own possible second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The province has been, thus far, the hardest hit of any in the country, with over 5,600 deaths, which is almost two-thirds of all the COVID-19-related deaths in Canada. And that's it for today. Thanks for listening to FrontBurner. See you tomorrow.