Home for Christmas: PM’s positive spin as NSW sinks deeper into grip of Delta
Scott Morrison has talked up reuniting families at Christmas despite surging coronavirus cases in Sydney and uncertainty over Melbourne’s lockdown.
NSW has reported 344 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 and at least 101 of those people were circulating in the community for all or part of their infectious period.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the Dubbo local government area in the state’s central west will go into a seven-day lockdown from 1pm on Wednesday after two positives cases were recorded in the region.
Two people have died – a man in his 30s from northern Sydney who had other health conditions and a man in his 90s.
Berejiklian encouraged everyone to come forward and get vaccinated. “I’m looking forward to that double dose of 70 per cent vaccination because that is when according to the best advice we have in the Doherty report, we can start to live life freely and not have the strong restrictions we have in place today,” she said on Wednesday.
There are 374 coronavirus patients in hospital, 62 of them in intensive care and 29 are ventilated.
Melbourne’s lockdown will be extended by a week as Victoria records another 20 locally acquired coronavirus infections, including another five mystery cases.
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Fifteen of the new cases are linked to known outbreaks and 14 were in quarantine during their infectious periods.
But with the origins of the initial outbreak from last week still a mystery and the five new mystery cases on Wednesday, there was no option but to extend the sixth lockdown, Premier Daniel Andrews said.
“Sadly, today the cabinet of the government have met and we have determined to accept the advice of the chief health officer to extend for a further period of seven days, until 11.59pm next Thursday,” Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters.
The prime minister warned the nation was in a tough fight against the Delta strain of the virus but signalled a more normal end to the year.
“I want Australia to get to Christmas, but I want everybody around that table at Christmas time,” he said.
Infectious disease expert Peter Collingnon believes the Christmas target to reunite families is realistic.
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“You may not have 100 people around your table but you could have a fair few for two reasons,” he told the Seven Network.
“We’re getting more and more vaccines out – we’ve got about 14 million out, we’re doing about one million a week – and also then winter and early spring is over so viruses also transmit less.”
While some experts have predicted Australia could get to 70 per cent fully vaccinated in mid-November, Health Minister Greg Hunt is not locking that in as a target.
“I won’t put a day on it,” he said.
“But I will say that what we are seeing is, at this point in time, more vaccinations occurring in July and August than we were anticipating and planning on.”
Australia has fully vaccinated 23 per cent of its population aged 16 and over.
Federal and state governments have agreed to 70 and 80 per cent coverage targets as key benchmarks for reducing the chances of lockdowns and easing restrictions.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the key to getting virus transmission in her state under control remained getting more people vaccinated and compliance with health orders.
“Policy positions that may have worked in the past aren’t going to have an effect with Delta, it’s something we need to accept,” she said.
“Short of not having authorised workers do what’s necessary, it’s really difficult to get to lower cases without that targeted vaccine strategy.”
The national rollout is just shy of 14 million doses so far, with 2.6 million delivered in the past fortnight.
Business leaders have pledged to help with vaccines but say clearer advice is needed on whether employees can be compelled to get a jab.
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