Lisa Wilkinson has ruthlessly slammed Gladys Berejiklian for letting the state’s Covid crisis spiral out of control, calling the New South Wales Premier’s leadership a ‘bin fire’ and demanding she step down.
The Project host said the situation in Sydney is ‘completely farcical’ after a record 681 new cases were reported on Thursday, along with yet another death as the city prepares for its ninth-straight week in lockdown.
‘The whole state needs a complete reset and if Gladys Berejiklian isn’t up to the job, then she needs to step aside and make room for somebody who is up to the job, because she’s stuffed this up,’ Wilkinson said.
The Project’s Lisa Wilkinson said Sydney’s Covid crisis has become ‘completely farcical’ as she slammed Gladys Berejiklian
She took aim at the embattled leader’s ‘unwatchable’ daily press conferences where the same confusing public health messaging is being repeated.
The TV star also doubled down on criticism that the premier has been ‘soft’ with restrictions, slowly easing the state into tough rules since June while the virus spreads out of control.
‘On a day when NSW is recording its highest numbers of the pandemic, another family is grieving a loved one, Gladys Berejiklian makes no new restrictions,’ Wilkinson said.
‘She’s doing nothing, the soft lockdown continues and we’re all scratching our heads trying to work out if she’s not going to do anything more, why is she continuing with this same rhetoric?’
Ms Berejiklian, instead of cracking down, told the state’s residents to remain hopeful insisting that she ‘can see the light at the end of the tunnel’ despite the pandemic-high case numbers.
‘NSW is up to 5.5 million jabs. When we get to six million jabs, those that are vaccinated will have the opportunity to do something that they can’t do now,’ she said.
‘Once we get to mid-November we expect 80 per cent of the population to be fully vaccinated. It gives enormous opportunities for greater freedoms than we do today.
‘I know these are challenging times, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.’
Sydneysiders lounging on Bondi Beach are approached by mounted police enforcing lockdown restrictions – with Sydneysiders having spent nearly two months in lockdown
Lisa Wilkinson (right) ruthlessly slammed Gladys Berejiklian (left) for letting the state’s Covid crisis spiral out of control, calling the NSW Premier’s leadership a ‘bin fire’ and demanding she step down
Members of the public sit on benches at Bronte Beach in Sydney as millions endure nearly two months in lockdown – with no end in sight
Wilkinson took aim at the Premier’s flowery rhetoric complaining that she is not giving the public ‘granular information’ about why the case numbers are so high.
‘That light she can see at the end of the tunnel, we can all see it too – it’s a complete bin fire. And somebody else needs to step in,’ she quipped.
Fellow host Waleed Aly said he still can’t figure out why there are varying levels of lockdown restrictions across Sydney, as the rules are creating a divide in the community.
‘I get they’re not all in the same place but if you want to keep a city together, if you want to be going through it together, and you don’t want to be catching up to where the cases are going, you need to be stopping cases getting there in the first place,’ Aly said.
NSW recorded its worst day since the start of the Covid pandemic with 681 new infections, prompting Ms Berejiklian to announce the extension of lockdown measures in the regions and said ‘we can’t pretend’ the state will ever get back to zero cases.
The premier said all of NSW would remain under stay-at-home orders likely far beyond August 28 after announcing 48 more cases than the previous day’s record tally – and another death.
The man in his 80s from Sydney’s south-east died at St George Hospital on Wednesday.
Of the new cases, 59 were contagious in the community and the isolation status of 459 infections is still a mystery to contact tracers.
The source of infection for 511 cases is still under investigation.
A record 110,000 vaccinations were administered across NSW in the last 24 hours – and Ms Berejikilian said the state was on target to fully immunise 70 per cent of its population by the end of October.
Hundreds of people wait in line for their Covid-19 vaccine at the South Western Sydney vaccination centre at Macquarie Fields on Thursday
A record 110,000 vaccinations were administered across NSW in the last 24 hours – and Ms Berejikilian said the state was on target to fully immunise 70 per cent of its population by the end of October. Pictured: The South Western Sydney vaccination centre at Macquarie Fields
‘Once we get to the end of October we expect 70 per cent of the population to be fully vaccinated,’ she said.
‘Once we get to mid November we expect that figure to reach 80 per cent.
‘It gives enormous opportunities for greater freedoms than we do today.’
She said NSW’s eight million residents ‘need to learn to live with Delta’ and accept Australia may never fully eradicate the highly-contagious strain of the virus.
‘We need to come to terms with the fact that when you get to a certain level of vaccination and open up, Delta will creep in,’ she said.
‘We can’t pretend that we will ever have zero cases again in Australia.’
The 681 cases recorded on Thursday is the highest daily increase in infections since the pandemic began in NSW
Police and ADF personnel are pictured patrolling the Bankstown LGA in Sydney’s south-west on Thursday. A man in his 80s has died from Covid-19 in Sydney as NSW’s Delta outbreak grew by a record 681 cases on Thursday
Authorities extended regional NSW’s lockdown – in line with the expiry date for Greater Sydney’s stay-at-home restrictions – after another 25 cases were found in the state’s west.
‘There are vast areas of regional NSW where there are not any cases but we have the opportunity to get down to zero cases in the regions,’ she said.
‘That is what we want to achieve, and therefore we need to take that precaution.’
The state has now administered 5.5 million Covid-19 jabs – only 500,000 doses short of the premier’s target of six million vaccines in arms across NSW by the end of August.
Ms Berejiklian has flagged easing lockdown in areas with high vaccination rates once that figure is reached.
But she refused to say what life could look like beyond September 1 other than saying vaccinated residents would have freedoms ‘better than what we are experiencing today’.
Police officers wearing face masks man a Covid-19 compliance road block in the suburb of Guildford on Thursday as cops ramp up patrols
Members of the public exercise at Bronte Beach in Sydney on Thursday with lockdown rules likely to drag on for months
‘I know everybody is waiting to know what life looks like after we had 6 million jabs – and more importantly, what September and October looks like,’ she said.
‘We are working on those proposals as we speak.’
The premier reiterated that high vaccination rates are key to ending lockdowns and curbing surging infections.
‘When we are at 80 per cent vaccination, decisions will need to be made as to how freely we can live,’ Ms Berejiklian said.
‘It will depend on the case numbers, but life will be much freer than what it is now.’
NSW Health said 463 of the new cases were found in west and south-west Sydney.
The vast majority of the new infections were found in Merrylands, Guildford, Auburn, Granville, Lidcombe, Greenacre and Blacktown.
Another 74 cases were found in the Nepean Blue Mountains region and 63 were detected in the central Sydney local health district.
NSW Police issued 671 fines across the state in the last 24 hours – including 393 to residents who left home without a reasonable excuse.