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CORONAVIRUS LOCKDOWNS ARE likely to be lifted in two major Australian cities this week, authorities said today, as outbreaks of the Delta variant were brought under control.
Around half of Australia’s 25 million largely unvaccinated residents are currently under stay-at-home orders.
But while Sydney struggled to bring its outbreak to heel, the states of Victoria and South Australia reported progress.
South Australia premier Steven Marshall said today that a week of stay-at-home orders would “most likely be lifted” in the early hours of Wednesday.
The state, which includes the city of Adelaide, reported one new infection on Monday, a case already in isolation.
Some restrictions will remain in place.
“We won’t be going directly back to where we were,” said Marshall, outlining lingering rules on social distancing and mask-wearing.
Restaurants will be seated-only and a ban on shisha pipes, dancing and singing will remain.
Similarly, authorities in Victoria, which includes Australia’s second city Melbourne, said the state was “on the right track” to also lift its lockdown early Wednesday.
Victoria reported 11 new cases on Sunday, but all were in quarantine.
But the state’s Health Minister Martin Foley cautioned that a final decision had yet to be made and the situation has been fast-changing.
Melbourne began its fifth lockdown earlier this month.
In Sydney, the picture was less rosy.
The city is struggling with its most serious Covid-19 outbreak to date, recording 145 new cases Monday as the outbreak grew to 2,226 cases.
Sydney’s month-long lockdown is almost certain to be extended on Friday.
Last week, the New South Wales state premier suggested restrictions could remain in place for another month or more, fuelling a thousands-strong protest on Saturday that was widely condemned.
Since the pandemic began, Australia has recorded about 33,000 infections and 918 Covid-related deaths.
Just 13% of Australians have been vaccinated, with poor supplies of Pfizer-BioNTech shots and scepticism about the AstraZeneca jab.
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Same old same old… women really are treated like second class citizens in this country! Theres no way man would be treated so badly…!
@Pat Kelly: An yet, women in Ireland have a greater life expectancy than men. Strange isn’t it.
@Pat Farrelly: Women live longer than men in general, all over the world, even in less developed countries, it’s got nothing to do with their treatment.
@Pat Farrelly: the female advantage in longevity is based on an extensive number of factors which vary from area to area. Too many to list. But is mainly chromosomal and hormonal (eg males tend to have fattier organs and females have fattier skin) But the advantage is shortening in recent years in most developing countries.
So you can be less bitter soon maybe.
Of course they were,nothing to see here it was an oversight or just a “side effect”.
You might get an enquiry but no one will be held accountable and if you drop the case we might even compensate you.
It’s so sad, I was started on that medication over 20 years ago , and from day 1 I was warned about the risks , about 10 years ago they took me off it, they said that women of childbearing age shouldn’t be on it if possible. It’s scandalous that I was warned about it 20 years ago by my doctors, and other doctors never mentioned it to other women.
@Kim Keoghan: Doesn’t that suggest it was more a failing by doctors not the state? There is a problem with consultants with specialisations only treating that area and ignoring the whole patient. There is also a problem with communications between Drs and patients, which is not entirely on the Drs side. I suspect we’ll eventually have to introduce some form of recording of Dr – patient interactions that can be accessed if cases like this comes up so that we can actually hear what was discussed and what warnings, if any were provided. We’ve all taken medication that can have side effects, and many times we put the warnings out of our minds because we need the treatment. It’s only later if the side effects arise and if they’re serious that we try to remember if we were warned and was the warning strong enough.
Doctors have been dismissing women since medicine began. I’ve dealt with it many times.
Women have always been seen as hypersensitive or hypochondriac or too emotional or over anxious etc etc etc. That’s my experience and that was with female and male doctors. sodium valporate was first introduced in 1964, by 1984 it was already been associated with a number of anomalies affecting the neural tube, heart, limb, reproductive and urinary system, skin and facial features. And yet it took ’till 2019 for the warning to be put onto the product. 35 years! An apology is far from what is needed.
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