Mr. Kirkup questions the Premier about the plan to address potential community spread of COVID-19 in the Kimberley, focusing on overcrowded housing, patient transport, and communication. The Premier outlines actions taken and planned.

AnsweredQoN 226Legislative Assembly
Asked
2 April 2020
Portfolio
Premier

QuestionView source ↗

CORONAVIRUS —
KIMBERLEY HEALTHCARE WORKERS
226. Mr Z.R.F. KIRKUP to the Premier:
I have a supplementary question. Premier,
I appreciate the response to the question.
As part of that, can the Premier
outline, perhaps now, what the plan is to respond to any possible community
spread that might occur? There are some
significant concerns, in particular, about crowding in overcrowded housing: how we might separate people in those circumstances; how we might transport
acute patients to intensive care units; and how we will better spread the
message in those communities. There is a lot of concern at the moment in those
communities that that message simply is not getting out.

AnswerView source ↗

The
Department of Health has sent additional staff and perhaps teams up there in
conjunction with the Department of the Premier and Cabinet and the Aboriginal
Medical Service, so that work is going on as we speak. My advice, especially to
Aboriginal people, is to stay in your community and stay at home. Only go out
for the essential purposes that have been outlined. There is a deep
vulnerability of Aboriginal people to this illness because of immunity
vulnerabilities. Therefore, that is my advice to people. We put in place the
regional boundaries. The commonwealth has put in place a regional boundary
under the Biosecurity Act, for the Kimberley in particular. In addition, as I said,
resources have been put in, and we will make further announcements about other
initiatives that we will take shortly.
The SPEAKER : Thank you, members. That is the end of
question time.

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