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AUSTRALIA’S HOPE OF returning to ‘Covid zero’ suffered a fresh blow today, as Sydney reported another record number of new infections and authorities warned residents to brace for worse to come.
For a second day in a row, New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian said Australia’s most populous state today hit a new peak with 291 cases detected.
“At least 50 of those were infectious in the community,” Berejiklian said, foreshadowing more cases to come, despite a lockdown that is now in its sixth week.
“I’m expecting higher case numbers in the next few days, and I just want everybody to be prepared for that,” she said.
Roughly 60% of Australia’s 25 million residents are currently in lockdown, as the country tries to curb the spread of a virulent Delta variant outbreak.
Melbourne became the latest major city to shutter late last night, after Victoria state premier Dan Andrews issued stay-at-home orders for the sixth time in this pandemic.
“To be really frank, we don’t have enough people that have been vaccinated and, therefore, this is the only option available to us,” he said.
Barely 20% of Australians have been fully vaccinated, due to an acute lack of supply and pockets of vaccine hesitancy.
With cases rising and lockdowns seemingly able to slow, but not stop the spread, there are growing questions about whether Australia can return to the ‘Covid zero’ status it enjoyed for much of the last 18 months.
“Given where numbers are, given the experience of Delta overseas, we now have to live with Delta one way or another, and that is pretty obvious,” said Berejiklian.
She said returning to zero cases would be “a challenge” but “that has to be our aspiration, we have to try to get down as low as we can.”
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@Ronan Flanagan: were you not awake last year? Sure maybe only 1% die but what affect would it have on the health system. Dr. Kerry Chant has said today that the NSW health service is now under stress due to this outbreak and that is whith lockdowns in place for 5 weeks. Australians who are fines deserve to be fined. A small group left Sydney last week when they weren’t allowed leave their local government area and as a direct result the Hunter region north of Sydney is now in lockdown. The affect that will have on small businesses is huge. So yes, they deserve to be fined.
The Country’s been run by an Inept Moron. Scot Morrison or as the locals call him, “Scotty from Marketing” heavily backed Astra Zennica as the preferred Covid Vaccine. When Pfizer was being offered to him a year ago, he basically said “No thanks”media here then heavily highlighted The chance of Blood-clotting from the Astra Jab. Now with under 20 % of the population fully vaccinated, most Aussies only want Pfizer and there’s bugger all of it in the country. Supposedly it’s going to arrive in dribs and drabs from the end of September. In the meantime, the Delta strain of the virus is getting a good foothold and about 70% of the population are in lockdown.
@Joe Kelly: I wouldn’t even trust Scotty from marketing to turn on the coffee machine…
@Joe Kelly: ScoMo and his cronies need to go… Problem is who wants his job at the moment?
@Joe Kelly: as much as I hate to defend the Slogan Bogan, ordering AZ was a good idea at the time.
AZ is the only one of the vaccines that can be manufactured within Australia- the rest have to be imported.
If it hadn’t turned out to be such a dud, the whole country would be vaccinated by now.
@Dave McHugh: agreed, hindsight is 20/20. However AZ is far from a dud. It’s an extremely effective vaccine which has been dragged through the mud.
@Dave McHugh: it’s not a dud. How did you come to that conclusion?
@Paul Furey: I didn’t come to that conclusion, The New England Journal of Medicine did.
Their research found that the Pfizer vaccine is 88% effective against the Delta variant, whereas AZ is only 67% effective in comparison.
@The Guru:
The Pfizer vaccine is 88% effective against the Delta variant, whereas AZ is only 67% effective in comparison. I know which one I’d rather have.
@Dave McHugh: you’ve cited one study which actually concludes that it is a highly effective vaccine. Far from a “dud”. If that’s a dud then I hope you don’t look at the studies for any other vaccines you’ve taken.
@The Guru: given a choice which one would you take?
@Joe Kelly: Scomo is a mor*n, but the opposition and the Murdoch media also played a role in sensationalising the risk from the Astrazeneca vaccine
@Ronan Flanagan: Ironically Facebook declared a pro-mask/pro-social distancing photo I tried to post this week as ‘Disinformation’. It was a photo of a US restaurant shop window sign stating “We Don’t Care” to any customer objection to wearing a mask on their premises. When I tried to appeal the ‘Disinformation’ block, a message displayed saying that due to Covid there were insufficient checkers available to process my appeal request. If my post was ‘Disinformation’, how on Earth do you not get blocked on this website for hyperbolic arguments and emotional reasoning that flies in the face of common sense and factual information?!!
@David A. Murray: Ah it’s annoying when that happens. I also had a pro-vaccine comment deleted, here on the Journal. I understand why, the the first paragraph was explaining what anti-vaccination crowd were claiming, the rest of my post was debunking that claim. The reviewer must have only read the first paragraph and mistook my comment as anti-vaccine.
@David A. Murray: Censorship in any form is not okay in a modern functioning democracy, especially when the topics considered ‘misinformation’ are set by far left tech companies based in the US.
You’re example just goes to show how far it’s gone, with their heavy handed approach to censoring and warning about anything related to covid pro or anti.
@Andy Dunn: Tech compannies in the US are far left?!!! Lol. No more explanation needed. İf you get a chance, pick up a history book. Oh, İ bet the history books were written by the left. Lololol
This was always going to happen. It’s only a matter of time before they have to admit their policy was a failure.
@whitewater: the policy already succeeded in avoiding covid zero. You can’t re-write history.
@whitewater: *achieving covid zero
@Dave McHugh: this is a virus that was always going to come in waves and stay with us . They may have started the journey well but everything they’ve done since means they are now looking at what we as a nation have experienced and moved on from . My Aussie pals are buckling in for a very long haul
@Conor Flood: I don’t think that’s correct. They might have a few months of lockdown at most but will have 80% vaxxed by Christmas and are coming out of winter now.
@The Guru: I disagree . the seasons don’t matter , we’ve experienced our latest wave in spring summer . We’ll have 80 % in a matter of weeks . They are now well behind the curve with only 16 % of pop vaccinated ( we have just shy of 60 ) and playing catch up with incompetent bureaucrats at the helm .
@Conor Flood: I don’t think Australia has anything to learn from Ireland’s experience of the pandemic.
Quite the reverse actually.
@Ronan Flanagan: an extremely contagious virus that kills and where people are still suffering up to 18 months later. So you’re ok with all the global pain and suffering? I’m glad you’re only in charge of the Ministry of Silly. Give it a rest!
@Andy Dunn: I take your point, but I was hyperbolic myself and knew it. That’s the first time I’ve encountered SM blocking and maybe it is in response to the US Covid/vaccination situation recently. I would counter though that the Internet has proven that a modern functioning democracy is extremely vulnerable to irresponsible and deliberate disinformation, although that ultimately depends on whether people are willing to put energy and time into double & triple checking information. We’re flawed and limited and we create flawed and limited systems.
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