At 11am today Premier Gladys Berejiklian began her press conference again by focussing on the vaccination numbers.
‘New South Wales has reached 6.8 million jabs, which is outstanding results 66% of our population. So nearly two-thirds of all of our citizens, the adult population have had one dose and 36% have had two doses.
‘Last night to 8pm we had 1,290 cases of community transmission. And again, more than 80% of these are in southwestern and Western Sydney, and in terms of the region’s their stabilisation across rural and regional New South Wales but Western New South Wales as the Deputy Premier will outline remains a concern for us.
‘Overnight we, unfortunately, had four deaths and we again extend our deepest condolences to the loved ones of the of the people who’ve passed away and again, whilst every day we read out the statistics we know that behind every death is a family, and those who are mourning so we extend our thoughts to them.
The Premier again was stipulating that vccination is the key in terms of freedoms and in terms of reducing the rate of spread of the virus. ‘The other number that’s really critical for us to look at is the rate of hospitalisation. And it stands to reason that when you have more people fully vaccinated, you are likely to see the rate of hospitalisation and the rate of people in intensive care decline and that’s the number we’re also looking at and we’ll have further to say about that in the coming days.’
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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