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Abstract
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The direct effects of the COVID-19 pandemic can be measured in tens of millions of infections, and millions of deaths worldwide. Beyond this, the long-term health burden of COVID-19 infections remains to be seen and is expected to be substantial. Indirectly, the pandemic has caused unprecedented social and economic upheaval; in part, this is a consequence of 'lockdown' measures introduced by local and national governments to limit the spread of COVID-19.
Australian state governments first imposed COVID-19 lockdowns in late March 2020. By early May, however, these restrictions were progressively relaxed as the 'first wave' of Australian COVID-19 cases abated. The state of Victoria later uniquely experienced a second spike of cases from late June. In response to this 'second wave', the Victorian government rapidly re-instated and tightened social restrictions. This would become one of the longest and strictest lockdowns in a high-income democracy to date, lasting more than 100 days until late October. Lockdown features included school closures for an entire term, a five kilometre restriction on movement from one's home, a 'ring of steel' restricting movement into and out of metropolitan Melbourne and overnight curfews.
These social restrictions radically changed our daily lives, which were increasingly reframed around the now familiar public health mantra: stay home, stay safe. Here, 'safe' was clearly - and appropriately - related to virus spread and infection. However, even from the first weeks of lockdown many of us were asking questions about the impact COVID-19 restrictions would have on another kind of 'safety'… safety from injury, particularly for children. On the upside, we would be spending less time on the roads (where many serious childhood injuries occur). However, on the downside we would also be spending more time at home (where many, if not most Australian childhood injuries occur) with predictably more stress on the family unit, reduced access to social supports and concerns about increasing family violence.
In response to similar concerns worldwide, it is unsurprising that several groups have measured the incidence of childhood injury during their respective COVID-19 waves and periods of social restriction. These reports varied with respect to whether childhood injury was seen to increase or decrease under lockdown, as well as the observed patterns of injury being attributed to the pandemic...
Language: en |