JANUARY 13, 2021 \ STARWEEKLY.COM.AU
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A year to never forget YEAR IN REVIEW ... STORY OF THE YEAR
A drive-through COVID-19 testing clinic. (Damjan Janevski)
mammoth effort to sew 6000 scrub gowns for frontline staff at Western Health. Point Cook’s Jasmine Hill, along with her friends Lily and Cassy, kick-started the scrubs campaign. “We want to let doctors and nurses know we are behind them,” Ms Hill said. By May, hundreds of Western Leisure Services staff were stood down because the organisation was ineligible for the JobKeeper program. Meanwhile, the council began redeploying staff whose normal jobs had been impacted by the pandemic. Melbourne Water began analysing sewerage samples taken from the Western Treatment Plant in Werribee in the hope of identifying potential clusters of coronavirus infections. Dining out was back on the menu in June as
Victoria started to reopen after more than two months of lockdown. Playgrounds, skate parks and outdoor gym equipment also reopened. But the joy was shortlived as Premier Daniel Andrews announced the return of lockdowns. It came as a COVID-19 outbreak at Truganina’s Al-Taqwa College grew to 90 people, placing hundreds of people in isolation. Wyndham recorded the second-highest number of virus cases in the state. On August 4, Mr Andrews declared a ‘State of Disaster’ for Victoria and introduced a raft of new restrictions, including a curfew and a five kilometre radius for metropolitan Melbourne. Committee for Wyndham chief executive Barbara McClure said the stage four lockdown would have “an enormous impact” on the municipality’s businesses.
On August 12, Wyndham reached a grim milestone with 941 active coronavirus cases – a jump of nearly 300 in under two weeks. Aged care centres across Wyndham grappled with the virus, with outbreaks recorded at BaptCare Wyndham Lodge Community and Glendale Aged Care Facility in Werribee. Cases were also recorded at Hoppers Crossing’s Mecwacare John Atchison Centre. The Al-Taqwa cluster became one of the state’s largest outbreaks. In September, falling case numbers gave Victoria some hope. Despite some easing of restrictions throughout October, the road out was ‘paused’ on October 27 while the state waited on test results. On November 8, Wyndham recorded no active virus cases for the first time since March.
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2020 was a year like no other. It’s the year that “staying apart, kept us together”, that words like ‘rona’, ‘iso’ and ‘lockdown’ found their way into everyday language, strangers fought over toilet paper in supermarket aisles and we were shut off not only from the world, but our families, our friends, our neighbours. The coronavirus pandemic dominated headlines as it swept across the world, both dividing and uniting us. It has brought with it undeniable hardship and heartbreak, social and economical ramifications that will be felt for years to come. But it has also highlighted our fighting spirit, our compassion and an inspiring ability to adapt. Australia’s first confirmed case of coronavirus was identified in Victoria on January 25, 2020. At it’s peak, Victoria had 7000 active cases. We look back on how COVID-19 unfolded across the northern and western suburbs. As businesses shut their doors in March in a bid to stem the spread of the virus, Wyndham council announced a ‘buy local’ campaign to help save local jobs. The campaign came amid the cancellation of events and the closure of schools, pubs, clubs, cinemas and gyms. The council also announced a $5 million stimulus package to help ease the burden of the pandemic on businesses. Panicked shoppers stripped supermarket shelves of essential supplies, prompting Coles and Woolworths to issue a plea for shoppers not to stockpile food. Werribee Mercy Hospital confirmed its first cases of the virus among staff in late March, with four staff members testing positive. In April, the hospital moved to reassure the community it was working to ensure staff had access to protective personal clothing amid growing fears over a national PPE shortage. Wyndham’s sense of community spirit was on display, with residents and community centres across the west coming together in a