“We stay here for you. Please stay home for us”
A group of doctors have called on Australians to stay at home to help control the spread of the new coronavirus.
The video is introduced by Australian Medical Association (AMA) WA president Andrew Miller, who urged the government to impose a national lockdown.
“I’m calling on the government to jump on the brakes,” Dr Miller said.
“This virus is out of control and we’ve really got to stop it to avoid a lot of unnecessary deaths, not only of healthcare workers but also people out there in the community.
“We want people to stay home and for the government please to impose a lockdown until we’ve got this under control.
“We know the people will understand.”
The doctors in the video asked members of the public to “keep our distance”.
“We can do this so our country can go back to normal soon,” they said. “Stay home.”
Doctors around the world have also made similar calls for people, with pictures and social media posts saying: “we stay here for you, please stay home for us”.
Source: Nine
The clip came after 5,000 medical doctors signed a petition pleading for a nationwide lockdown.
In the petition, the doctors asked the government to establish more measures, including “a national shutdown of non-essential services and enforcement of strict social distancing” to slow or halt the virus transmission.
“Doctors are not activists; they don’t put their names or emails or roles to petitions,” said intensive care specialist Greg Kelly. “To have thousands of my colleagues sign it indicates just how united we all are on this and how worried we are about it.”
The AMA has encouraged the government to introduce “more and stronger social isolation measures”, including further closure of non-essential services.
“It is a big call for governments to direct the population to cease work, suspend schools, and only leave home for essential needs, but the AMA will back governments in making this call,” said federal president Dr Tony Bartone.
“New Zealand has adopted broad community isolation measures. The United Kingdom has instructed its population to stay home except to shop and seek medical help.
“It’s time for governments to act on their local evidence, while avoiding further confusion, to increase home isolation. More people need to be at home to flatten the escalation curve.”