- Hayfa Bakour is a 25-year-old Arabic interpreter at Lakemba clinic in Sydney
- She is pleading with rest of Sydney to stop blaming migrants for Delta spread
- Sydney inner south-west is the epicentre of the state’s surging Covid cases
- A boy, 15, from Lakemba, Osama Suduh, is Australia’s youngest Covid fatality
By STEPHEN JOHNSON, ECONOMICS REPORTER FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA
PUBLISHED: 02:23 BST, 17 August 2021 |
A young Muslim woman in a Covid hotspot is pleading with Australians to stop blaming multicultural communities as lockdown rules are tightened.
Hayfa Bakour is a 25-year-old university student balancing three jobs from home as she helps out interpreting Arabic at a pop-up vaccination clinic at Lakemba, in Sydney’s inner south-west.
‘When you go into our local grocery store, which is usually bursting with people, you will find everyone is social distancing, everyone is wearing a mask, people are checking in before they enter the establishment,’ she told the ABC’s 7.30 program.https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.474.0_en.html#goog_560095535about:blankabout:blank
‘So, to the people who think that our communities are at fault for the increasing numbers or that they are not being compliant with the restrictions and with the rules, you know, I think that is a very damaging message to be spreading.’
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A young Muslim woman in a Covid hotspot is pleading with Australians to stop blaming multicultural communities as lockdown rules are tightened. Hayfa Bakour (pictured) is a 25-year-old university student balancing three jobs from home as she helps out interpreting Arabic at a pop-up vaccination clinic at Lakemba, in Sydney’s inner south-westYoung Muslim woman pleads stop to scapegoating communitiesLoaded: 0%Progress: 0%0:00PreviousPlaySkipMuteCurrent Time0:00/Duration Time0:30FullscreenNeed Text
Lakemba was also home to Osama Suduh, 15, who died with Covid-19 on Sunday night, a week after he was rushed to hospital with pneumococcal meningitis.
He was then placed on life support in intensive care after he tested positive to Covid-19 and later became the youngest person in Australia to die with the virus.
A cousin confirmed the tragic news about Osama to Daily Mail Australia on Monday morning.
Relatives believe the year 10 student caught the virus at KFC Punchbowl where he worked part-time, which was recently declared a close contact exposure for seven consecutive days between July 27 and August 2, with 12 members of staff infected.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard on August 10 implied migrants were largely to blame for the outbreak, with suburbs in Sydney’s west and south-west subjected to a heavier police presence than the eastern suburbs where the Delta outbreak began in June.
‘There are other communities and people from other backgrounds who don’t seem to think that it is necessary to comply with the law and who don’t really give great consideration to what they do in terms of its impact on the rest of the community,’ he said.
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Lakemba was also home to Osama Suduh, 15, who died with Covid-19 on Sunday night, a week after he was rushed to hospital with pneumococcal meningitis. He was then placed on life support in intensive care after he tested positive to Covid-19 and later became the youngest person in Australia to die with the virus
Helicopters have also been deployed over parts of western Sydney, inviting accusations of double standards compared with the other side of the city, where crowds regularly pack the beach walks at Bondi and Coogee.
But Sydney’s inner south-west has, by far, some of the city’s lowest Covid vaccination rates with just 19.1 per cent of people aged 16 and over being fully vaccinated, below the 25 per cent national average, Department of Health data showed.
By comparison, 28.4 per cent of people in the eastern suburbs have received two doses of either AstraZeneca or Pfizer. 
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Health Minister Brad Hazzard on August 10 implied migrants were largely to blame for the outbreak, with suburbs in Sydney’s west and south-west subjected to a heavier police presence than the eastern suburbs where the Delta outbreak began
The Canterbury-Bankstown local government area, which covers the Muslim heartland of Lakemba, is also a Covid hotspot, with New South Wales on Monday announcing a record 478 cases of the more contagious Delta variant.
On Tuesday, the daily increase was still high at 452 new cases with Blacktown, Seven Hills, Merrylands, Guildford, Auburn and Bankstown named as suburbs of concern.
The Canterbury-Bankstown area is at the epicentre of the Delta outbreak as case numbers stabilise in the neighbouring Fairfield council area.
It is one of 11 council areas where residents are living under even tighter lockdown rules that ban them from venturing more than 5km from home or leaving their local government area for work unless they are employed in health or essential services.
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Sydney’s inner south-west (pictured is the Lakemba Mosque) has, by far, some of the city’s lowest Covid vaccination rates with just 19.1 per cent of people aged 16 being fully vaccinated, below the 25 per cent national average
In Canterbury-Bankstown, Bayside, Blacktown, Burwood, Campbelltown, Cumberland, Fairfield, Georges River, Liverpool, Parramatta and Strathfield, residents can’t go more than 5km from home even within their council area for shopping or exercise.
In the rest of locked-down NSW, residents can go anywhere within their council area for outdoor exercise and groceries but are restricted from moving more than 5km from home in a neighbouring council area.
All of regional NSW was put into a one-week lockdown on Monday with Sydney residents, outside Covid hotspots, having their distance from home outside their council area halved to 5km from 10km. 
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The Canterbury-Bankstown local government area (pictured is a Lakemba pop-up clinic run by the Lebanese Muslim Association), which covers the Muslim heartland of Lakemba, is also a Covid hotspot, with New South Wales on announcing a record 478 cases of the more contagious Delta variant
Categories: Australia, Europe and Australia