Overcrowded Aboriginal Housing Highlighted as Australia Races to Help COVID-19-Hit Outback Town

SYDNEY - A fleet of camper vans is now providing emergency quarantine facilities in a remote outback town in Australia where over 10% of the mostly indigenous population is infected with the coronavirus. A lack of accommodation for COVID-19 patients and their close contacts in Wilcannia, 1,000 kilometers northwest of Sydney, has highlighted a chronic housing problem in many First Nation communities. 

Wilcannia has one of the highest rates of COVID-19 transmission in the Australian state of New South Wales.    More than 13% of the town of 800 people have contracted the contagious disease.  About 60% of the population is indigenous.    Thirty camper vans will provide temporary accommodation for the close contacts of infected patients.  Officials had raised concerns about aboriginal residents’ ability to safely isolate themselves in overcrowded homes from family members who had tested positive for COVID-19.