Cape York Weekly FREE – #065 | Tuesday, December 21, 2021
Editor: Matt Nicholls 0477 450 558 | editor@capeyorkweekly.com.au
VIRUS COMING TO CAPE YORK
Mapoon youngsters Jarlah Pitt, Kyra Tabuai, Tyreka Madua and Washeta Mallie at the church opening last Thursday.
Get jab before COVID arrives By MATT NICHOLLS
CAPE York has weaved and ducked over the past two years to avoid the spread of COVID-19, but the virus appears to be just days away from arriving in our part of the world. As the Omicron variant spreads throughout Queensland and even more rapidly in NSW and Victoria, Cape York leaders and health officials believe we are on the cusp of getting our first cases. Cook Shire mayor Peter Scott said he hoped that unvaccinated people would rush to get their jab before Christmas in a bid to stop
hospitals from being overwhelmed in the new year. “All I ask is for everyone to please go and get vaccinated. The best scientific advice is that being vaccinated will reduce deaths and hospitalisations,” he said. “We know the virus is coming to Cape York but as a community we can have a say on what that impact is going to be.” The Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service is keeping some of its major vaccination clinics open over the holidays to give locals every opportunity to get a last-minute jab. Full story – Page 4
THIS WAS FOR YOU ...
ANYONE who grew up in Mapoon over the last 50 years has never been able to step foot inside a church in their home town. That changed last week when the Mapoon Memorial Church was officially opened. While the momentous occasion was too late for a generation of Elders who lobbied for decades to have a new church built, the opening closed a painful chapter for the Mapoon people, who were displaced by the Queensland government in the 1960s. Full story – Pages 10, 11, 12 and 13
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