Amelia Cutting
Sydney, the capital of Australian state New South Wales has extended its lockdown by another month.
The original stay-at-home order has failed to control the breakout of the Covid-19 Delta variant. This means the initially intended ‘snap’ lockdown is turning into one of the country’s longest since the pandemic began.
It is now in place until at least the 28th August.
In a televised news conference, the Premier of New South Wales, Gladys Berejiklian, said:
“I am as upset and frustrated as all of you that we were not able to get the case numbers we would have liked at this point in time but that is the reality.”
Vaccinations
More than 2,500 people have been infected, making it Sydney’s worst outbreak of 2021. This high rate of infection has likely been exacerbated by the fact that just 16% of Australia’s adult population has been vaccinated against Covid-19.
As in the UK, confidence in the AstraZeneca vaccine was shaken when information surfaced about potential blood clot risks, especially in younger people. The Federal Government in Australia provided advice that under 60’s receive Pfizer only. Simultaneously however, the government also failed to secure more supplies of the Pfizer vaccine; both factors that have been attributed to the low vaccination rate in Australia.
Since the new Delta variant breakout in June, the government has changed the advice to allow all over 18’s to receive the AZ vaccine with GP approval. This is a rule that has now changed to not needing GP permission as the situation in NSW worsened.
“The accelerating vaccination rollout will begin to make a difference in a few months, but at this stage a tight lockdown makes a larger impact and needs to continue,”
Recent health data shows that the daily rate of vaccinations has increased since the start of this lockdown. Coinciding with more supplies of the Pfizer vaccine being delivered to New South Wales, of which Sydney is the capital.
Director of the University of Sydney’s Centre for Complex Systems, Mikhail Prokopenko, said that at the current vaccination rate, at least 40% of the population would be fully vaccinated by mid-September.
“The accelerating vaccination rollout will begin to make a difference in a few months, but at this stage a tight lockdown makes a larger impact and needs to continue”, he said.
Professor Prokopenko has been modelling the effect of restrictions on case numbers, using 10 cases a day as the point at which lockdown could end. The latest case numbers up to July 25 showed that compliance with social distancing laws was only around 60%.
“To adequately suppress the outbreak, 70 to 80 percent of residents in Greater Sydney must comply with social distancing, however we are just not seeing those numbers yet”, he said.
Lockdown Enforcement Efforts
The lockdown has been criticised for being so heavily policed. This was enhanced by the recent announcement that hundreds of soldiers have been deployed to help enforce the lockdown.
“We cannot put up with people continuing to do the wrong thing because it is setting us all back”
Soldiers will join the police in virus hotspots to ensure that people are following the strict rules.
New South Wales Police have said that people are not following the rules seriously. And commissioner Mick Fuller has been granted additional powers to ensure compliance. The fine for not wearing a face mask has increased from $200 to $500 and police are able to close down workplaces that are found to not be complying with the public health orders.
“We cannot put up with people continuing to do the wrong thing because it is setting us all back”, NSW State Premier Berejiklian said, after announcing that police would be used to boost enforcement of social distancing rules.
Real Life Experiences
“Whilst other countries began to implement wide-scale vaccination roll outs, our PM claimed that it was ‘not a race'”
A young Sydney resident spoke to me about her experiences throughout the pandemic.
She said that NSW went into lockdown for the first time in March 2020, and by May 2020 restrictions began to ease. There were still some restrictions, in particular social distancing, and this approach was quite successful with the state “recording no community transmission of COVID most days for the rest of the year, allowing the restrictions to continue easing”.
“Despite there being an outbreak in the Northern Beaches of Sydney in December 2020, the area was cut off from the remainder of Sydney which contained the virus meaning the whole state did not have to return to a lockdown.”
As Australia seemed to be dealing with the pandemic successfully allowing for greater freedoms than other countries, the vaccination rollout was not prioritised, she told me.
“Whilst other countries began to implement wide-scale vaccination roll outs, our PM claimed that it was ‘not a race’’.’
However, since June when the situation began to worsen and Covid cases rose this meant guidance on the AstraZeneca vaccination changed.
“I remained skeptical, particularly as the change appeared to be based on desperation and inadequate preparation rather than a change in scientific evidence.”
“The messaging changed, posing the Delta variant as a larger risk than AZ side effects. I am booked in to have the AZ vaccine this Friday. I have chosen to do this to protect myself and the people around me, and do my part for the wider community to lift vaccine numbers- many share this sentiment.
However I am disappointed that the youth of the nation have needed to make this decision as a result of the Government’s inadequacies.”
Featured image courtesy of Cullen Jones via Unsplash. Image licence can be found here. No changes were made to this image.
Amelia Cutting
I'm Amelia- a graduate from the University of Leeds and current NCTJ Level 5 Diploma student!