The states of New South Wales (New South Wales), home to Australia’s largest city, Sydney, and Victoria, reported a total of 886 infections on Saturday, amid a furious outbreak of the Delta variant.
NSW, which reported a record 825 cases of local transmission, also had three coronavirus-related deaths.
“Even in very strict and harsh blockages, the virus spreads and that is a fact,” he added. “So what we need to do is protect ourselves and our loved ones by staying home and also vaccinating ourselves.”
In the neighboring state of Victoria, 61 cases were reported on Saturday, prompting authorities to extend the closure measures from the state capital, Melbourne, across the state. Residents can only leave home for essential activities such as buying food or medicine, care, vaccinations, and exercise.
Tensions are high, with anti-blockade protests erupting on Saturday in Sydney and Melbourne, as well as in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, although restrictions were reduced on Friday in parts of that state.
In Sydney, protesters showed up in the city center despite warnings from police, who set up checkpoints to prevent people from gathering. In Melbourne, hundreds of maskless protesters marched through the city before clashing with authorities. And in Brisbane, thousands of people gathered at the city’s botanical gardens, though the state of Queensland did not register any local cases on Saturday.
“Change of attitude”
The protests highlight the challenge facing the Australian authorities in adhering to strict containment measures.
For more than a year, Australia was considered a success story in containing Covid-19. He sealed off his borders to almost every foreigner, imposed strict quarantines for arrivals, and introduced aggressive testing and tracking regimes to detect any cases that passed through his defenses.
But its zero-covida strategy is being questioned by the Delta variant, which is estimated to be as transmissible as chickenpox.
In recent weeks, Australian officials have noted that they are moving away from the attempt to completely eradicate the coronavirus.
On Saturday, Berejiklian said he had noticed a “change in attitude about what Delta means” in his conversations with other state leaders.
“No matter how hard we work and if 99% of people do the right thing, there is one element of Delta that no one can control,” he said.
“We accept that Delta is here, we agree to go zero to the whole nation – especially once it opens and lives freely – it will be an impossible task.”
Instead of reducing the cases to zero, Berejiklian said the government’s job is to keep people out of the hospital until vaccination rates increase.
“The best way we can wait for freedom is to make sure we get vaccinated,” he said.
Berejiklian expected 70% of the NSW population over the age of 16 to be fully vaccinated by the end of October and 80% by mid-November, if current vaccination rates are maintained.