It was a big year for the novel coronavirus, otherwise known as COVID-19. However, despite all of us hoping it would be a nice, mellow, 2021 for those of us in Shepparton, “the rona” had other ideas. Max Stainkamph tracks its few highs and countless awful lows across the year.
First jabs rolled out
After a quiet first few months on the coronavirus front in Shepparton and across the country, the first COVID-19 vaccine was administered in Shepparton by GV Health on March 11.
Shepparton’s Dr Mark Harris, who had been on the front lines of Shepparton’s COVID-19 fight, was chosen as the first recipient of the Pfizer jab.
The clinical director of adult medicine at GV Health and clinical lead of the respiratory ward for the past year, Dr Harris had guided the treatment of COVID-19 patients at the hospital since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
“I’ve received heaps of immunisations throughout the years — but this is different,” he said.
First lockdown of the season
Start the lockdown counter, because we’re going to lose track very quickly if not. Victoria’s first lockdown of 2021 came on February 12.
The lockdown was in response to a United Kingdom strain of the virus, with only four reasons to leave your home. Premier Daniel Andrews said the new variant was “moving at a velocity which has not been seen anywhere in our country over the past 12 months”.
However, Kayla and Cameron Marshall-Straw managed to beat lockdown by hours and hold their wedding in Shepparton just before restrictions kicked in.
We knew it wasn’t going to be the last one at the time, but I’m not sure any of us expected what would happen over the next 10 months.
May lockdown
Victoria’s fourth statewide lockdown, and second for the year, was put into place at 11.59pm on May 27 following an outbreak in Melbourne which had grown to 26 cases, 150 exposure sites and 11,000 close contacts.
It was planned to go for seven days, but was extended by another seven days on June 2. It ended on June 10 at 11.59pm.
We were given a fifth reason to leave home during this lockdown — to get a coronavirus vaccination — but the lockdown was to cope with the new Delta strain, which was spreading “quickly and contagiously”, according to Acting Premier James Merlino.
The statewide lockdown was justified on the basis that major sporting events had been pinged as exposure sites, with people from regional Victoria at those locations, and exposure sites in Cohuna and Bendigo.
June lockdown
Another month, another snap lockdown. That counter for 2021 should now be at three, although this is where it starts to get fuzzy. On July 14, three days after Victoria slammed shut the border to NSW and the ACT, unmasked removalists from NSW drove from Sydney to Melbourne while infectious with the Delta variant.
Premier Daniel Andrews announced a snap lockdown on July 15, due to last five days. It was extended by another seven days on July 20 and lifted on July 27.
August lockdown
A little over a week later, Victoria entered yet another lockdown in response to six new community cases, with the lockdown beginning at 8pm on August 5.
Regional Victoria was released from lockdown on August 10, but plunged back into lockdown on August 21 in response to an outbreak in Shepparton.
Shepparton’s August outbreak
After nearly a week of positive wastewater detections in Shepparton, a positive case was discovered on the morning of Friday, August 20. By the end of the day, 15 more positive cases were uncovered in the city.
Another five were recorded by Saturday afternoon, and Greater Shepparton Secondary College and St Mel’s Primary School were soon listed as exposure sites — among several others.
Several days later, some 20,000 people — about a third of Shepparton’s population — were in isolation, nearly every primary and secondary school in the city was an exposure site and a huge mobilisation effort was under way to ensure people had food, supplies and support and to support Goulburn Valley Health, which had nearly 500 staff in isolation and incredible demand on testing capacity.
Some 6000 tests were done on September 2, which was day 13 for most people.
Shepparton’s lockdown was eased on September 15, and on September 27 the last of the 195 active cases from the August outbreak recovered. Two people died in the outbreak.
Jabba the Bus, and friend Maxine
GV Health’s vaccination bus, affectionately known as Jabba the Bus, was launched in early September following help from Dyson Group.
The bus was an Australian first and was set to travel around City of Greater Shepparton and the Moira, Benalla, Strathbogie, Mitchell, Murrindindi and Campaspe shires to help boost vaccination rates, especially in higher-risk or lower-mobility communities.
“It started off as a conversation over morning tea or a lunchtime break for the staff here at the McIntosh Centre and is something that sort of grew from there and became a reality,” GV Health chief executive Matt Sharp said.
Jabba was joined by Maxine Vaccine on November 21 to boost the vaccine rate in the GV Health area above 95 per cent in every local government area.
Get the jab done gets the job done
GV Health launched a campaign to get the 5000 remaining eligible people to get their coronavirus vaccine on October 10.
Mr Sharp said he wanted the whole community to have the best possible protection from the virus.
‘‘The only way to do this is for the remaining unvaccinated people in greater Shepparton to get the jab done,’’ he said.
Mr Sharp said GV Health would use mobile clinics to reach members of the community who, for whatever reason, hadn’t visited a vaccine hub, clinic or pharmacy.
The countdown — across Shepparton on billboards and screens — managed to get the 5000 unvaccinated people down to less than 300 in a month.
Shepparton’s September outbreak
With just four active cases of coronavirus left in the city, no exposure sites and Shepparton out of lockdown — another outbreak sparked.
Five new cases across two households were identified over September 24-25, sparking calls from Mr Sharp for people to get tested at the first sign of symptoms.
However, people were still waiting “two, three or four” days after developing symptoms to come forward for testing, and on October 1 the city was put into another snap lockdown — Shepparton’s sixth of 2021 and eighth since the start of the pandemic.
By October 4, Mr Sharp said coronavirus was here to stay, following AFL grand final parties and people travelling from Melbourne to Shepparton, which at that stage was still banned.
By the start of October the city’s latest outbreak was at 42 active cases, and outside grand final parties, the main cause of transmission was from people travelling to and from Melbourne.
By mid-October that tally was at more than 180, with a man in his 70s dying on October 14.
Vaccination milestone
On October 27, Shepparton passed the crucial 80 per cent double dose milestone, following weeks of vaccine coverage increasing by 10 per cent a week.
GV Health COVID-19 vaccination lead Helen Roberts said reaching the milestone was a “relief”.
“I feel an awful lot safer and I feel my patients and the community should feel a lot safer,’’ she said.
‘‘When we gave our first 50 vaccinations in that little room in GV Health, now we’re hovering around 1000 a day, plus all the other sites and the extras our buses are doing.’’
COVID-19 vaccination program manager Alynda Wayman said Sheppartonians had been “champing at the bit” to come in and get vaccinated.