By Sam Birrell, CEO of Committee for Greater Shepparton
GREATER Shepparton is in a tough place, and it will require a focussed effort from the whole community to get out of it. A critical first response has been to look after isolated families with their basic necessities. With supermarket delivery services affected by staff shortage, GV Cares, an initiative supported by a range of organisations and volunteers has been making sure those who need food and basics have them. It is a wonderful community effort and something we can be proud of.
This generosity and practicality is becoming a key part of our brand when you look at references to the Shepparton situation in the national media. It is hard to pull many positives out of where we are at the moment, but that is one. Another key part of the response is to drive the case numbers to ground, and get this virus out of our community.
That requires following isolation rules, getting tested as soon as symptomatic and getting vaccination as soon as possible. If everyone in Greater Shepparton did these three things, we would be out of trouble in reasonable time and businesses can get back to opening up and trading, which is what they desperately need to do. Our community would be a lot safer and everybody could operate with more certainty into the future. I’m sure we can pull together and do it.
