David Smith (Bean, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

As everyone here in this chamber and building knows, Canberra, my home town, has been in lockdown since 12 August. My community knows how dangerous this delta strain of COVID-19 is and it is doing the right thing to help limit the spread of this virus. What started with an index case a few weeks ago has grown to a cluster of over 250 active cases, with 13 cases in hospital.

When providing their daily update on the situation in the ACT, the Chief Health Officer or her deputy give a shout-out to a section of the team doing the hard yards to keep us safe: contact tracers one day, our expanded testing team the next, our excellent epidemiologists. Today I would like to give a shout-out to our Chief Health Officer, Kerryn Coleman, and her leadership team for their resolve and direction through this ongoing crisis. I'd also like to give a shout-out to the broader workforce getting our community through this: our educators and support staff; our school students; our essential cleaning staff across the government and care sectors; our online delivery drivers, delivering food to hundreds in isolation; our community sector staff, working with government to support and vaccinate our most vulnerable citizens; Julie Tongs and all the staff at Winnunga. There are too many to list in 90 seconds, but I thank all of you.

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