Emma Grey: There’s nothing more hopeful at Christmas than a barren COVID ward
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Despite there being zero active cases in Canberra, and 126,643 negative tests, I don’t want to be ‘that person’ who inflicts the ‘rona on the city at Christmas.
So I did my civic duty and dragged my flu-ish self to the Garran COVID-19 surge centre for testing. It’s located on the very oval where I performed athletics feats in the mid-’80s, as a student at Garran Primary School.
Eleven-year-old me, racing around on the grass in the 4x100m relay could never have imagined a future where this very ground was transformed into Canberra’s first line of defence against the ravages of a pandemic that would stop the world.
While I sat in the waiting room with two other people, in the empty, state-of-the-art, $23 million dollar purpose-built hospital that hasn’t seen a single patient, I stopped for a few moments to consider how incredibly grateful I am for our medical and scientific leadership on this issue, and for such widespread respect of the science.
This gratitude in no way intends to minimise the pain many Australian families are facing, who’ll be in deep grief this Christmas due to the virus—including three Canberra families.
Nor do I forget the sacrifices, and the work of front line staff, including my own best friend, in Melbourne this year. I don’t count our chickens yet, either, as this is still a threat to us.
But the scene of empty COVID-19 cubicles really got to me. It’s such a stark contrast to the piles of iPads at the ready to farewell people from afar, the hospital beds set up in car parks and the overflowing mortuaries we’re seeing overseas, in waves that seem as difficult to hold back as the ocean itself. My heart aches for families around the world who are so unsafe from this.
The majority of Australians have put our trust in science this year. The majority have behaved in the interests of each other. Our leaders acted swiftly and came down like a tonne of bricks on this, despite the economic cost and the temporary squeeze on our liberties.
Could there be anything more hopeful at Christmas in 2020 than the sight of a barren coronavirus ward? My wish for the world is the proliferation of an effective vaccine available to all. We’re not quite there yet.
It’s comforting to know we may never need the hospital for its intended purpose, but we also can’t be assured of that. Our success in flattening the curve means almost the entire city, minus the 117 who’ve had the virus, are effectively sitting ducks…
When the Garran Oval was just an oval, I remember our PE teacher reinforcing the need to keep sprinting hard until you’re well over the finish line. Don’t taper off, he would say. Don’t be so certain you’ve beaten the field.
Let’s not taper off with our vigilance now. Let’s not feel certain we’ve beaten something that could still get away on us. We are so close. As someone with two elderly parents who live in a nursing home not far from the hospital, I’ve never been more glad that this is the city our family calls home.
