Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Victorian hotspots for coronavirus. Is the use of Local Government Areas too broad?

The Victorian government has announced a number of local government areas as coronavirus hotspots. By the number of people getting tested this is obviously alarming people. But the questions becomes, is local government area far too broad?

I live in Manningham and if you measure the distance from one end of Manningham to the other it is a very large 21 kilometres. When something happens in Wonga Park, does it really impact those in Bulleen? Yes it could, but it's unlikely.

The following article details the hotspots.


The hotspots are the local government areas of:

Hume - 36 kilometres
Brimbank - 19 kilometres
Darebin - 11 kilometres
Moreland - 11 kilometres
Casey - 35 kilometres
Cardinia - 52 kilometres

The longest distance across each local government area is shown above and the distances covered even for the smallest local government area is considerable. Local Government Area is really far too large an area to be useful for most people.

The government really needs to start providing information at the postcode or suburb level. All the government is currently doing is needlessly scaring people. Only with the right level of information can we take the information seriously. With information we can be informed and act appropriately.

Early on I found the locations of infections was starting to overwhelm me. For my own sake I started to record where public exposure locations were occurring. The government isn't particularly forthcoming with information, is slow at making information available to the general public, but by using information available from the government and the media, I was able to get better information. The real pity is all this information is readily available from the government but it's not being made available. 

The New South Wales government for example is making the data available available at the postcode level.

Victorian GPs are also asking for more refined data to keep themselves and their clients safe. 


It makes sense. If we know something is happening around we will be more vigilant. If we're given useless data that has no meaning to us we'll either panic, or we'll start ignoring the information thinking it isn't relevant. The government creates problems either way by not being transparent or forthcoming with information.

You can find the information I collate from the Health Department and the general media available at www.Mapz.com.au/coronavirusvictoria/. I hope you find it useful.

Kelvin Eldridge

Update: 25/05/2020
The Victorian government has has now released the list of suburbs.
Keilor Downs
Maidstone
Albanvale
Sunshine West
Hallam
Broadmeadows
Brunswick
Fawkner
Reservoir
Pakenham


 


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