Only two people can gather outside unless they are members of a household, and there are only four reasons to leave home: for exercise, food and supplies, work and education, and to access medical care or provide caregiving
- Lockdown rules
MARCH 2020 saw Loddon communities - businesses, residents, students - facing the unknown.
Coronavirus was gripping the nation, the first deaths from the virus dubbed by some as the Wuhan flu and now known as COVID-19 had been recorded and restrictions rapidly rolled out by governments.
And from March 30, lockdowns started in Victoria. Then-premier Daniel Andrews grimly fronting the media daily as the number of people hit with the flu grew.
In the Loddon Shire, schools had switched to remote learning that would be a constant part of the routine for two years as snap lockdowns came and went, only to return again.
Inglewood and Districts Health Service CEO Dallas Coghill was the clinical services director when health services across the shire went on high alert and would later operate testing centres.
Five years on, he says the pandemic changed the way health was delivered and certainly increased the burden on the industry, “some that we are still seeing the effects of now”.
“The during the imposed lockdowns the healthcare industry continued to front up to work each day,” he said.
“This was certainly a challenge for our nursing staff, clinical teams of allied health professionals and our domestic services teams as they navigated the unknowns of what this pandemic would deliver.
“The immediate changes that were implemented to the way that IDHS provided services included staff wearing full personal protective equipment for their eight-hour shifts. The PPE included full length gowns, respiratory masks, gloves and face shields. 
“As you can imagine this was quite confronting for staff as it was a significant change in care delivery for a service like ours. One of the initial challenges was resourcing the PPE and ensuring it was appropriate for the care we provided to our community.
“For our residents and patients this was also an extremely challenging time. When communication is difficult at times already due to hearing deficits by adding another layer of masks made communication much more challenging not only for our residents. 
“Our residents could not see the faces of our nurses and missed the smiles on their faces and this certainly impacted on how we interacted with each other. Not only were there communication challenges but the lockdown created an environment that we could not accept visitors to our residential aged care service. 
“The resilience and innovation that our clinical staff displayed in ensuring connectivity with family through facetime calls, posting activities on our social media was certainly well received. One highlight through this period included the IDHS Olympics that was developed by our leisure and lifestyle team.
This provided our residents with something to look forward to and created a fun environment during an extremely challenging time.”
Mr Coghill said Loddon health services ran COVID testing clinics. He said it was not unusual to see lines of cars to up to a kilometre waiting for a test. 
“We had people visiting from all over the state to receive a COVID test. The way that we were able to co-ordinate this was  amazing and showed again how resilient and innovative small rural health services can be.”
Mr Coghill said the impacts of the pandemic five years ago were still being felt.
“We have only just ceased rapid antigen testing for visitors prior to entry to our facility. We continue to have spikes in COVID presentations that have impacts on how we manage our residents and patients,” he said.
“What COVID did show was how resilient the health care industry is and in particular IDHS clinical staff’s ability to adapt and change to a challenging environment. 
“We can be very proud of the service that we provided our community during this challenging time and we cross our fingers that we don’t endure another one,” Mr Coghill said.
What are your memories of when the pandemic hit? Share them with the Loddon Herald 
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