The mayor of a rural town straddling the Qld–NSW border believes his community has been a "profound test case" for how to manage a Covid-19 outbreak.
Goondiwindi mayor Lawrence Springborg said he believed the town's handling of the outbreak would promote the positive gains of high vaccination rates to other regional communities in Australia.
He said the difference between vaccinated and unvaccinated communities was clear, with hundreds of active cases in the neighbouring Moree Plains Local Government Area.
"Look at that level of difference that it's made in our community, compared to hundreds of cases across the border now, where it's ripped through unvaccinated communities, that is the difference," he said.
Swift response
Local GP Dr Matt Masel can attest to the town's achievement.
When a COVID-positive person walked in to his doctors' surgery in Goondiwindi, it was something he had spent more than a year preparing for.
"I would have expected it earlier," Dr Masel said.
Several staff were forced into isolation and the surgery was closed as a result.
The case was one of four positive COVID-19 cases detected in the small south-west Queensland town earlier this month, with two people identified as having been in the community for up to five days.
The cases had been linked to a funeral in Moree in northern New South Wales.
Two other cases linked to the cluster were detected in home quarantine in Goondiwindi on November 12.
Dr Masel said the community was quietly confident it had managed the outbreak due to the town's high vaccination rate.
As of November 15, more than 86.2 per cent of Goondiwindi's eligible population aged 15 and over was double vaccinated, while more than 95 per cent have had their first dose.
Cautious wait and see
The Darling Downs Public Health Unit, which has been managing the outbreak, said it was continuing to monitor the situation.
The unit's Dr Liam Flynn said authorities would wait a few more weeks before they could be confident in declaring the cluster contained.
"Declaring any outbreak contained involves there being at least one incubation period free of any new cases," he said.
"We would make a declaration like that in conjunction with our epidemiologist colleagues in Brisbane."
Residents are being urged to get tested and maintain social distancing measures.
Preparing for further outbreaks
Dr Masel believes the community can contain future outbreaks.
He conceded that future outbreaks will continue to happen in Goondiwindi, with concerns about the ongoing situation in towns such as Boggabilla and Toomelah across the border.
"Our community straddles the border, so we haven't stopped COVID in its tracks by any means," Dr Masel said.
"We know there's more to come."
