SIR, – I agree with many of your views about the management of the virus at both state and federal levels by all the political parties working together on this complex issue.

I also acknowledge that many people are understandably anxious and scared of what’s to come on the front line of managing this dreadful disease and my heart goes out to everyone in Melbourne and regional areas in lockdown.

I think our community is getting better at adapting to social distancing and change. 

Being in Melbourne as a tradesman or alternative essential worker at the moment would be very difficult. The temptation to filter into country areas to keep working and feed the family is understandable and currently legal because there is no defined radius for workers to travel to complete works, subject to permits.

However, I see serious weaknesses in current restrictions, which I believe are not in the spirit of the restrictions. 

These will potentially have a negative impact on people’s health in Horsham and surrounding areas over the next few weeks. It is something that could have possibly been avoided.

We need to delay some non-critical building works and-or projects occurring in the city with crews of tradesmen from Melbourne turning up in Horsham. I have seen this first-hand.

Equally, as difficult as it seems, having family come up from Melbourne or affected areas in caravans in driveways or households is equally damaging and another issue I have seen frequently occurring.

I can’t see that any of these projects are justifiable as a ‘must do’ given the state of emergency. 

If critical, they could be resourced by local tradesmen or sub-contractors under extraordinary circumstances.

If the virus could speak English it would be saying thank-you very much because it wants this sort of host behaviour to allow it to spread rapidly. It all comes down to the maths, as more arrive from hotspots the infection probability goes up exponentially.

Matthew Jenkinson

Horsham

The entire July 29, 2020 edition of The Weekly Advertiser is available online. READ IT HERE!

The entire July 29, 2020 edition of AgLife is available online. READ IT HERE!