‘Magnifying glass’ on inequality: why Covid is hitting harder in Melbourne’s disadvantaged areas | Victoria
Covid is acting as a “magnifying glass” on the inequalities felt in disadvantaged parts of Melbourne, where there is less access to essential services including pharmacies, childcare and green space.
“We knew before that there is a lack of access to parks. We knew before that there is a lack of access in disadvantaged areas for several of these services,” Dr Ori Gudes, adjunct senior lecturer at UNSW, said.
“But now in the time of stay-at-home orders and closed borders, it becomes much more of an issue.”
Data also reveals the most disadvantaged areas in the city have seen up to 10 times more Covid cases than the most affluent during the current outbreak.
The current Covid outbreak in Victoria is following a similar trajectory to both Sydney’s current outbreak and the state’s second wave in 2020.
Australian National University PhD researcher Daniel Reeders says the Covid spread is even more predictable because many chronic conditions or health outcomes are correlated with disadvantage. Because of this, the pattern of Covid cases across cities can resemble that of diabetes, breast and bowel screening.
“Bowel screening has nothing in common with Covid infection, yet they obey the same pattern. It’s not about access to services – the test is free and they post it to your house,” Reeders said.
“It’s about where screening fits in lives under constant pressure: working in casual jobs, multiple jobs, no control over shifts, with family relying on your income. It’s about demands on your time as much as lack of money.”
The Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD) from the Australian Bureau of Statistics takes into account factors like income, qualifications, language skills and family size. Grouping the Covid cases by IRSD shows there have been almost 5000 cases in the most disadvantaged Melbourne local government areas since 1 June this year.
In that same time there has been just over 500 cases in the most advantaged areas. The Hume local government area alone has had more than 1500 cases per 100,000 residents. Meanwhile some more affluent LGAs have had as little as 17 cases per 100,000 residents.
The social infrastructure index from Australian Urban Observatory looks at the average distance to services like health, education, early childhood, culture and emergency services.
The index shows residents in many of the areas currently experiencing the worst outbreak live some of the farthest distances from these services.
RMIT associate professor Melanie Davern says a lack of services in your immediate environment can cause people to move around more, or just go without.
“If I have everything within my 800m walk then perhaps I don’t have to move around my community as much. It’s not just about work but how people are living their lives to access these things,” Davern said.
“You’ve got multiple layers of disadvantage kicking in here. In terms of accessing everyday services. In terms of not being able to work from home. In terms of transport. Access to school, childcare centres, a pharmacy, a doctor and so on.”
Davern says these disadvantages can also result in overcrowding, or not having a doctor aware of cultural sensitivities. Some of these venues, like pharmacies and GPs have also become vaccine distribution points.
“People may think libraries are about books but they’re about so much more. They’re places where you can have public events, where you can see all sorts of different media. It’s not just the cultural service its a holistic service that people don’t think about.”
The data also shows many residents in Melbourne’s north west live an average of a kilometre or more from their nearest large open green space. But Davern says most people won’t walk further than around 800 metres – roughly a 10-minute walk – to access services.
This is becoming even more important as governments look to picnics and outdoor recreation to ease some of the lockdown burden.
“Access to social activities, access to other facilities that may or may not be available during lockdown. These things are important in regular times, but during a pandemic are much more crucial,” Gudes said.
“The pandemic really just amplified this problem and took it to a level that we haven’t seen before. We cannot overlook these inequalities any more. The pandemic at some stage will be over and these inequalities will remain.”
Guardian Australia sent questions to the Victorian department of health and human services asking why so many cases were concentrated in disadvantaged areas and if anything had been done to tackle health inequalities since the outbreak last year. The department did not respond in time for publication.
Notes and methods
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Covid cases by LGA downloaded from the Victorian department of health and human services. Cases then grouped by IRSD quintile of the LGA
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Average distance to nearest open public space and social infrastructure provided by the Australian Urban Observatory
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