Sydney's lockdown is extended for at least another month after just 177 Covid cases in a day as PM warns measures could last until CHRISTMAS amid stalled vaccine roll-out
- Sydney's tough lockdown rules, in place since late June, extended to August 28
- Comes after just 177 Covid cases were detected, highest toll since March 2020
- PM warned snap lockdowns are likely until Christmas, when enough Australians will have been vaccinated to change how the country responds to outbreaks
- Just 12 per cent of people have been jabbed, one of the lowest rates in the world
Sydney's tough Covid lockdown has been extended by at least another month after just 177 new cases were detected today in a city of more than 5million people.
The city, Australia's largest, has been under strict stay-at-home orders since late June and will now remain shut until at least August 28.
But experts have warned it could be mid-September before all measures are lifted in Sydney, while Prime Minister Scott Morrison added that snap lockdowns will be the government's go-to response for Covid outbreaks until at least Christmas.
Only then will enough Australians have been vaccinated to consider changing how the country deals with outbreaks of the virus, he added.
Australia is overseeing one of the world's slowest vaccination drives with just 16 per cent of people jabbed despite the roll-out starting in February.
Sydney's Covid lockdown has been extended until at least August 28 after just 177 Covid cases were detected Wednesday in a city of more than 5million
That is despite the country having a plentiful supply of AstraZeneca jabs, with people reluctant to take them due to confusing advice over the risk of blood clots.
Mr Morrison last-week apologised for the slow pace of the roll-out, following months of criticism.
Australia is pursuing a so-called 'zero Covid' strategy, keeping cases out of the country using strict border closures and quarantines - snuffing out outbreaks using harsh snap lockdowns each time a case escapes.
Lockdowns are only eased once Covid cases drop back to zero.
Such lockdowns have been used at least a dozen times in the last year, with the states of Victoria and South Australia easing their measures today.
The approach has left Australia with some of the lowest Covid case and death totals of any country - 33,000 cases and 918 deaths - and has allowed people to live relatively normal lives between the lockdowns.
However, it has also left tens of thousands of Australians stranded abroad with tickets home rationed and travellers asked to foot the bill of quarantining.
Coupled with a slow vaccine drive, it also means that - at a time when most developed countries are dropping lockdowns and returning to some normality - Australians are still being shut up at home.
Millions living within Australia's most-populous city will now be compelled to stay at home unless for essential business or exercise until at leas August 28
And, as Covid mutates and gets more infectious, those lockdowns are becoming more frequent with the Delta variant proving particularly difficult to contain.
In a sign that Australia's patience with the strategy is wearing thin, thousands of people took place in 'freedom' protests in some of the largest cities at the weekend.
Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane were hit by sometimes-violent protests as people demanding an end to restrictions clashed with police.
Two men in their 30s were charged in Sydney with punching a police horse, while dozens more were arrested and hundreds were fined.
Mr Morrison and New South Wales state premier Gladys Berejiklian branded the protesters 'selfish', warning at the time that demonstrations would be 'self-defeating' by causing cases to rise and dragging out lockdowns further.
Sydney's cases have risen steadily since the demonstration took place, hitting 177 on Wednesday - an extremely low total compared to most of the rest of the world, but the city's highest since March last year.
Ms Berejiklian subsequently announced that the lockdown - which was due to end Friday and has been extended twice already - would need to be extended further.
Until at least August 28, residents in greater Sydney have to stay at home unless they are going food shopping, fetching medication, or carrying out essential work.
Rules have now been tightened meaning that people cannot travel further than six miles from their homes to carry out those activities, unless their essential work requires them to travel further.
Covid cases have been steadily climbing in the state of New South Wales since the lockdown was first declared, but are still extremely low compared to other countries
Australia's 'zero Covid' strategy has kept the country's case and death tolls among the lowest in the world, but has plunged the country into repeated brutal lockdowns
Australia has seen a total of just 33,000 Covid cases and 918 deaths from the virus, but has been through more than a dozen lockdowns this year alone
Some 2million people have also been banned from leaving their local government areas unless for essential work.
Meanwhile thousands of people who visited 49 locations within Sydney have been warned they might have been exposed to Covid and should get tested.
Visitors to five locations have been told they must test and isolate for 14 days, regardless of the outcome of the test.
Those locations include a pharmacy, a health shop, two supermarkets and a Pizza Hut restaurant.
'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,' Ms Berejiklian said.
She added that police would boost enforcement of wide-ranging social distancing rules and urged people to report suspected wrongdoing, saying 'we cannot put up with people continuing to do the wrong thing because it is setting us all back'.
In one case, a mourning ceremony attended by 50 people in violation of lockdown rules resulted in 45 infections, she said.
The extension turns what was initially intended to be a 'snap' lockdown of Australia's most populous city into one of the country's longest since the start of the pandemic, and may spark a second recession in two years, according to economists.
To minimise the economic impact, the NSW government said it would lift a ban on non-occupied construction in most of Sydney.
However, it expanded a list of local government areas within the city where the ban would stay because of the prevalence of COVID-19 cases there.
The popularity of the federal government may suffer from the extended lockdown.
New South Wales state premier Gladys Berejiklian said she was 'frustrated' at the continuing lockdown even as she extended it for another four weeks
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has warned the country's 'zero Covid' approach will remain in place until at least Christmas when the vaccine drive should pick up
Polls show slipping support for Prime Minister Scott Morrison's government amid criticism of a slow vaccination roll-out that has been blamed on changing regulatory advice and supply shortages.
'There is no other shortcut, there is no other way through, we have to just hunker down and push through,' said Morrison during a televised news conference in the national capital Canberra.
He acknowledged his own family was caught up in the Sydney lockdown.
'There will be lots of criticisms, there will be lots of hindsight, but this Delta strain is very unpredictable.'
On Wednesday, the NSW government said it was redirecting Pfizer vaccine doses, which have so far been restricted to people aged 40 to 60, from relatively unaffected regional areas to final-year school students in the worst-affected Sydney neighbourhoods.
The state and federal governments also said they were expanding a relief funding package to enable affected companies to keep paying wages through the closure.
In contrast to NSW, the states of Victoria and South Australia began their first day out of shorter lockdowns that halted outbreaks there.
Victoria reported eight new cases, all of them isolated throughout their infectious period, and another case still under investigation.
Queensland state reported one new case, a man who completed the country's mandatory two weeks of hotel quarantine then tested positive nine days later.
The authorities said they were trying to track down people who may have been in close contact with him, including occupants of a youth hostel where he stayed.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMicGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmRhaWx5bWFpbC5jby51ay9uZXdzL2FydGljbGUtOTgzNDAyNy9BdXN0cmFsaWEtQ292aWQtU3lkbmV5cy1sb2NrZG93bi1leHRlbmRlZC1tb250aC1jYXNlcy1yaXNlLmh0bWzSAXRodHRwczovL3d3dy5kYWlseW1haWwuY28udWsvbmV3cy9hcnRpY2xlLTk4MzQwMjcvYW1wL0F1c3RyYWxpYS1Db3ZpZC1TeWRuZXlzLWxvY2tkb3duLWV4dGVuZGVkLW1vbnRoLWNhc2VzLXJpc2UuaHRtbA?oc=5
2021-07-28 08:31:34Z
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