Just before New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian gave her Coronavirus update at 11am, it was reported that Queensland has just announced that the border bubble with New South Wales will be reinstated, but not in the way many had hoped.
Premier Berejiklian began the press conference by saying that 76.4 per cent of the adult population have had a first dose of the COVID vaccination and 43.6 per cent are fully vaccinated.
‘Now it’s when that number hits 70 per cent double dose, the Monday after that, we’ll be able to have those freedoms that we outlined in the roadmap yesterday.’
Record cases and record deaths
Today was a record-high number, again, of new COVID positive cases in the 24 hour period. ‘To 8pm last night, we had 1,542 cases of community transmission, and as the modelling, we release indicated we are expecting the peak number of cases to happen in the next week or so and so far this trajectory is what has been predicted.’
Premier Berejiklian also announced a record day of COVID related deaths. ‘Regrettably, we did have nine deaths to 8pm yesterday and we extend our deepest condolences to the loved ones of those families.
‘Freedoms’
The Premier then went on to outline some of the new ’freedoms’. ’As you know from Monday, because we got to that 6 million jabs by the end of August we promised there’d be additional freedoms. There’s a couple of extra tweaks we’ve made to make it a bit easier for people.
Ms Berejiklian said that there are different rules for those areas outside those local government areas of concern, including the Northern Rivers. ’From Monday, you’ll be able to have five vaccinated adults who live within the LGA or within five kilometres of their home come together, so long as all the adults are vaccinated, we’re not including 12-year-olds in that definition so a 12-year-old are under that definition that means you can have five adults, which was the previous rule but now you can have kids under 12 as well.’
‘If you live within an LGA of concern, obviously you can exercise, unlimited. However, if you’re vaccinated, your household can go out for a picnic or recreation for two hours every day. In addition to the exercise so you can obviously exercise but if you just want to sit down and have a picnic with your household so long as the adults in that household are vaccinated, you’re able to do so for a couple of hours every day as well. But of course, that has to be within the five-kilometre radius requirements so everything else stays the same curfew in the five-kilometre radius but if your household has vaccinated adults, You’re able to and for this definition, we’re just saying over 18 Because not everybody over 16 has been offered the vaccine, but if your household that lives together every day and functions together every day, you’re able to enjoy some recreation in addition to the exercise provision.
Queensland border bubble
The Deputy Premier said he had good news to add to yesterday’s news that restrictions on parts of regional and rural New South Wales being lifted tomorrow. ‘The Deputy Premier of Queensland, Steve Miles reached out to me,’ said Deputy Premier John Barilaro. ‘We were able to task our cross border commissioners to work through the issue on the Queensland and New South Wales border.
‘We are reverting back to the previous arrangements for those communities in the north of this state and southern Queensland.’
To be clear, there will not be free travel into Queensland, but students and essential workers will be able to travel from the 12 New South Wales LGA when restrictions have eased into Queensland.
Mr Barilaro said he wanted to thank the Deputy Premier of Queensland and his team. ‘This really will make a difference for those communities that have done it hard, for those that live on in border communities we know how seamless and invisible that border is but unfortunately, our communities do get impacted at times when borders are closed so today.
This is good news for the people of north of this state, and especially for New South Wales Tweed community and the Northern Rivers community. Fingers crossed we can keep the new arrangements in place to support those communities.’
We need to live with COVID
The Premier also said today that her daily update will, for the near future, be taken over by the health professionals rather than herself and the Deputy. ‘I just want to say very, very clearly and loudly to the people of New South Wales, we will be here whenever we need to communicate something very important.
‘I will make sure that we are but what we also need to do is, all of us have to start accepting that we need to live with COVID, because COVID will be around for three or four years. I can assure the people of this state. I think they can judge me on my record, whenever I need to speak directly to the public, I absolutely will. But we also have to make sure that as a government, we normalise the way we do things every day that we accept that if there isn’t anything new to tell the public apart from the daily figures, or the daily messages and health, we’ll provide that on a daily basis.
‘I’m always accountable always public as the ministries that we also have to accept all of us have to start thinking about what living with COVID means, and if there’s any unexpected occurrence, if there’s anything which the public needs to hear directly from government, whether it’s myself or the Minister for Health or the Deputy Premier or any by ministerial colleagues, of course we will do that.
‘But at the very least, we need to make sure that all of us accept what the future holds, but also all of us accept at what living with COVID means and what it looks like, and absolutely that information New South Wales prides itself on having the most transparent information available.’
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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