Clearly trying to keep this morning’s press conference about vaccination numbers and not case numbers, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said that a record 738,000 people had been vaccinated in the past week. ‘An outstanding result. I want to thank everybody for coming forward.’
Ms Berejiklian said New South Wales is up to 5.9 million jabs. ‘I set a target of six million by the end of the month. We will be at least one week ahead of schedule. I am pleased everyone heard the cool, the messages, and is coming out to get vaccinated.
‘We had 160,000 people tested in the last 24 hours, another huge number.
Yesterday there were 818 cases of community transmission, at least 42 infectious in the community. ‘Three people lost their lives overnight,’ said Berejiklian. ‘We send our deepest condolences, all three were in the 80s, had underlining conditions. Two were male and one female.
Focus on vaccination rate not case numbers
Ms Berejiklian said she wants to stress that we are going through the rollercoaster ride of emotions as case numbers go up and down. ‘I don’t want is to focus so much on the numbers going up and down. We want to see them go down, no doubt about that, and we’re working so hard to make it possible, but the number we need to focus on is a vaccination rate.
Ms Berejiklian said that when we reach 70% double dose, we will be able to live more freely. ‘When we get to 80% double dose, essentially, we would have normalised the way we treat COVID.
‘As the Doherty Report says, when you get to 70% double dose vaccination, you start to transition and treat COVID as you would the flu and terms of how you record hospitalisations and the way the community is going. I want to stress that.
‘In relation to the six million jabs and schools going back, I said we would have more to say about it at the end of the week, and we will. We will be able to communicate what additional freedom people may have once they get to full vaccination and during September, and we will outline our plan for schools. Both are a work in progress and we are consulting with the chief psychiatrist as well as the public health team to get the right balance.’
Ms Berejiklian said she knows what New South Wales is going through is changing. ‘I hope we never experience this in our lifetime again, but every state will have to go through the transition of going back to normality.
Every state will have to live with COVID
‘Every state will have to live with COVID. You cannot keep Delta out forever, you cannot assume there will be zero cases even if you had zero cases today. I urge all of us to work together in New South Wales and across the nation to make sure we provide health and safety to all of our citizens as much as possible, but also we focus on what life looks like in just weeks and months away.
‘In fact, New South Wales is doing better than anticipated. I’m hoping to get updates to the community when we have a 70% double dose. At this stage, we are saying end of October but we could get there sooner given how quickly people are responding. We are deeply grateful.’
Recent stories, information and updates regarding COVID-19
New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Life shows life expectancy in Australia has decreased slightly for the second year in a row. An international team of researchers has found more evidence that COVID-19 came from animals in a Wuhan food market. The lab-leak theory that Covid-19 came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology – instead of a nearby wet market – was thrashed about in public recently, with the US Senate Homeland Security Committee holding a hearing into Covid-19. Eighteen schools in the Northern Rivers division of Richmond have received $25,000 each as part of the federal government’s School Upgrade Fund, Labor Member for Richmond Justine Elliot said last week. COVID-19 reversed earlier trends toward longer life expectancies. During the pandemic, life expectancies globally dropped by 1.6 years according to a new study published in the Lancet medical journal. Let’s not forget that Covid-19 is still a big issue in our community with 31,935 cases reported across Australia in the last week – an average of 4,562 cases per day. The Global Carbon Budget is about to be refreshed, giving the world a critical insight into how efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are (or are not) progressing. Masks will no longer be mandatory on public transport from tomorrow, Wednesday 21 September. SW Police are urging festival-goers at this weekend’s music festival to celebrate in a safe and responsible manner, whilst also being aware of COVID-Safety measures. The Northern NSW Local Health District reports that to 4pm yesterday, Sunday May 22, there were 40 COVID-19 positive patients in hospital in Northern NSW, with one of these in ICU.
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