Gladys Berejiklian has opened an entire arena to help boost the state’s vaccination rates and called in 1,000 police and soldiers to enforce Sydney’s lockdown as New South Wales recorded another 170 Covid-19 cases overnight.
The NSW premier said while the number of new cases was ‘considerably less’ than Thursday she expected that figure could spike again on Saturday.
Of the newly-acquired cases, 42 were infectious in the community and 93 cases are still under investigation.
From August 9, she said Qudos Bank Arena in the city’s Olympic Park would open to vaccinate students living in the city’s eight hotspot local government areas.
The state government hopes 20,000 Year 12 students a week will receive a Covid-19 jab every week at the mass vaccination hub.
The announcement follows footage of decontamination tents in Sydney’s north-west laying bare the reality of the city’s Delta outbreak.
Sydney is almost five weeks into a strict stay-at-home lockdown to slow the spread of Covid-19. Pictured is a masked pedestrian in the Sydney CBD on Friday
A handheld video shared to TikTok on Thursday evening showed at least six white tents set up in front yards in Sentry Drive in Parklea in Sydney’s north-west.
The quiet suburban street was put on alert last week after at least five people at the Unisson Disability care home tested positive to Covid-19.
The footage emerged amid warnings Australia could be enduring lockdowns until next year as the country continues its elimination strategy until enough people are fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
A masked healthcare worker is pictured outside Sydney’s RPA hospital on Thursday
Prime Minister Scott Morrison and state premiers will on Friday discuss what percentage of Australians need to be jabbed before the country can live with the virus like it would with the flu.
Mr Morrison has said the level will be around 65 or 70 per cent after the UK scrapped restrictions on July 19 with 65 per cent of adults fully jabbed.
‘The United Kingdom was at 65 per cent [and now] just over 70 per cent. So these are the sort of levels you’re talking about,’ Mr Morrison told radio 3AW on Thursday.
He expects all eligible Aussies to be offered their first dose of a vaccine by January, but fears lockdowns may still be required next year.
Since the start of the Sydney outbreak on June 16, NSW Health has failed to trace the source of 800 coronavirus cases. Pictured is a pedestrian in the Waverley LGA in Sydney’s east on Thursday
When asked if Australia will be open by Christmas, he said: ‘No one can give those guarantees because the virus is unpredictable.’
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has said she wants 80 per cent of adults – or 62 per cent of state’s population – to be jabbed before opening up.
Until the target is reached, short, sharp lockdowns will be implemented by states in response to a handful of cases to snuff out the virus.
Sydney’s lockdown has been extended until August 28, with only 15 per cent of the population nationally so far fully immunised against the virus.
While the majority of cases are still being found in the city’s west and south-west, a new map has shown nowhere in the Harbour City has escaped being exposed to the highly-contagious Delta variant.
There were 104 infections recorded in the South Western Sydney Local Health District and a further 58 in the Western Sydney LHD on Thursday, but the skyrocketing cases in the city and its east have gone under the radar.
Sydney LHD, which encompasses the CBD and highly-populated inner west, recorded 51 infections on the same day.
In the South Eastern Sydney LHD, which includes Randwich, Woollahra and Waverley, there were 14 new transmissions and the Northern Sydney LHD saw three cases.
Five were in the Blue Mountains and four from Illawarra Shoalhaven.
Fairfield Mayor Frank Carbone, whose suburb is one of eight deemed ‘Covid red zones’ along with Canterbury-Bankstown, Liverpool, Cumberland, Blacktown, Georges River, Campbelltown and Parramatta, says the lack of uniformity in the restrictions is causing a divide.
EXCLUSIVE: Bombshell leaked audio captures Scott Morrison saying ‘the time will come’ when only the fully-vaccinated may be allowed into bars and restaurants while those who refuse the jab stay locked down – but major changes are needed first
The time will arrive when Australians fully vaccinated against coronavirus will enjoy more freedoms than their anti-jab counterparts, Scott Morrison has revealed.
In audio obtained by Daily Mail Australia, voters from the Cook electorate in Sydney’s south grilled their federal MP on a host of pandemic topics from the country’s bungled vaccine rollout to more support for businesses crippled by a fresh horror wave of the virus in New South Wales.
One fully-vaccinated constituent called Steve from Cronulla said he was frustrated that he was in lockdown despite answering the call to get vaccinated many months ago.
Fully vaccinated Australians could enjoy more freedom once more of the population gets the jab (pictured, revellers partying in The Rocks before the recent outbreak)
He said more Australians would get the jab if support was given to businesses such as cafes, restaurants, pubs and clubs by allowing them to open to fully-vaccinated patrons only.
In a remarkably candid answer, Mr Morrison agreed the proposal should be looked at once more of Australia’s population is vaccinated and the worst of the current NSW outbreak is over.
‘Until the overall vaccine rates are higher than they are now… even with vaccinated people moving around, while vaccinations certainly reduce the risk of you catching Covid and transmitting it, there is still the ability to catch it and pass it on,’ Mr Morrison explained.
‘When we have such a large unvaccinated population and particularly when we’ve got an outbreak of the Delta variant, and we’re getting increasing evidence to show it’s more probably damaging to people’s health, that could move through the unvaccinated population very quick and could even come from people who are vaccinated.
‘When we get our vaccination levels a lot higher, I agree with you, and I think there should be those advantages to those who have done that and taken the opportunity.
‘Because if you’re vaccinated, you’re less of a public health risk than you are to someone who’s unvaccinated.
‘I think the time will come when exactly what you’re suggesting should be able to be achieved.’
Pictured is a Covid-19 drive-through testing clinic in Sydney on Wednesday as five million residents endure a hard lockdown to stop the spread of the Delta variant
He is calling on the Berejiklian government to introduce the same rules right across the Harbour City.
‘The community has been fighting this for six weeks, we would much rather do what we have to do, let’s get on with our life, let’s beat this virus together, but it needs to be across the whole of Sydney,’ he told A Current Affair.
‘There’s no use eradicating the virus in half of Sydney and letting the virus spread in the other half of Sydney.’
The mayor said the issue should be treated as a problem for all of Sydney, not just the west.
The map of case numbers over the past seven days shows what’s happening on both sides of Sydney – and that there are far more cases in the CBD and east than most people realise
‘Seventy-one of today’s cases were outside the eight LGAs that are considered to be a hot spot and nobody is talking about that,’ he said.
‘We need the premier and the cabinet to step up. At the moment, we’re getting policies that are dividing our community.’
One of the most enduring mantras of the pandemic is that ‘we are all in this together’ but for many families living in the multi-cultural west, the saying rings out as a hollow slogan.
Those communities are now preparing themselves for a contingent of Australian military personnel to set up a ring fence around their neighbourhoods with extra police on the streets to enforce Covid compliance.
Defence Minister Peter Dutton confirmed on Thursday night 300 personnel would be brought into the city, with patrols starting Monday.
‘We would support the army if they are doing contact tracing and supporting operational measures,’ Mr Carbone said.
‘The army and police are here to help the community, not work against it, and we need to make sure that the messaging is clear on that and that the community supports this.’
Public health expert Bill Bowtell and adjunct professor at UNSW, who is also calling for uniform restrictions to be introduced throughout Sydney, said the tightening of lockdown measures announced today and impending use of the military is simply too little too late.
‘Whatever you do today should have happened five and six weeks ago,’ he said.
One of the most enduring mantras of the pandemic is that ‘we are all in this together’ but for many families living in the west, the saying rings out as a hollow slogan (pictured, a woman enjoying winter sun at Bondi Beach on Thursday)
‘The harsher measures taken when the virus is rampaging through Sydney as it is now, well, it’s a bit too late.
‘We have to do a lot better. As the mayor says, this is not just a Fairfield or Liverpool problem.
‘It’s a problem for all of Sydney and we have to have an all of Sydney approach to what we do to start bringing this virus under control.’