COVID RECOVERY in regional Victoria will demand energy in prevention and a focus on mitigating the pandemic's long-term effects, the state's chief health officer says.
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The "game-changer" will be a vaccine, however it may develop, but Professor Brett Sutton said there was still a huge demand on primary healthcare moving into next year as the state eased open.
Professor Sutton was guest speaker for University of Melbourne's rural health department webinar on Tuesday night, presented in partnership with Rotary Club of Ballarat South.
And he warned this pandemic was not over yet.
Looking ahead to how next year might unfold, Professor Sutton said recovery was two-pronged. Victoria had 20,000-plus COVID-19 cases and there was a need to understand the chronic long-term, multi-organ effects the virus would have on the body.
There was also the care provisions and investment for the impacts a long, restrictive pandemic had on Victorian's mental health and well-being, including catching up on elective surgeries, dental and chronic disease management. In this he also made clear the need for prevention and supports after the rise in family violence.
Professor Sutton said regional Victoria's efforts, particularly in stage three lockdowns, had a profound result on the whole state. Energy focused on prevention remained essential.
This comes on the eve of Ballarat marking 100 days with no new COVID-19 cases detected.
With no community transmission in Victoria, Professor Sutton said the state's next step needing "almost undivided attention" were ports of entry. At a community level, it still means appropriate hygiene, masks, screening, testing and isolating when unwell.
We have to work on the assumption it is always a risk. We have to work on the assumption it could occur and we have to put our minds and all our energy to ensuring it doesn't happen.
- Professor Brett Sutton, Victoria's chief medical officer
"It's fair to say we all feel desperately anxious about the possibility of a third wave but I don't think it will occur. We may well get, we probably will get, additional cases - certainly in hotel quarantine but even potentially community cases again," Professor Sutton said.
"With everything we have learnt, and we have had our experience forged in the fires of our second wave, we are very well placed to make sure there is no third wave that looks anything like more than just a small outbreak that we crush, that we wrap our public health response around immediately and we robustly manage in the most timely way we possibly can
"We have to work on the assumption it is always a risk. We have to work on the assumption it could occur and we have to put our minds and all our energy to ensuring it doesn't happen."
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