Australia’s approach to the pandemic (strict border policies, rapid closures and aggressive outreach) led the country, along with neighboring New Zealand, to be praised throughout 2020 for taking a non-tolerance approach. to public health. It bore fruit. While other countries faced overflowing hospital systems and devastating death tolls, Australia enjoyed large public gatherings and life went on as normal for most people within its closed borders.
But faced with the rise in delta variant cases, the Australian government has announced a dramatic change, which now plans to “live with the virus” rather than eliminate it completely.
In short, “Fortress Australia” has been breached.
During a televised briefing last month, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the closures, which in some parts of the country have lasted for more than six months, “were not a sustainable way of life.”
“This Groundhog Day should end and it will end when we start reaching 70% and 80%,” he said, referring to vaccination rates.
Much of the country remains largely free of COVID. But the states of New South Wales and Victoria, home to the metropolises of Sydney and Melbourne, have recorded a record number of infections daily in recent weeks. Between September 1, 2020 and July 1 this year, the country recorded less than 5,000 coronavirus cases. But since then, total cumulative cases have doubled in less than three months, from 30,684 to more than 66,000 as the delta variant was imposed, according to Our World in Data.
“The reality is that the delta is too contagious to be able to remove it with the amount of restriction that can be borne by a population that is already really tired of the restrictions after having spent more than 200 days of restriction previously,” he said. Professor Ivo Mueller, epidemiologist at the Walter and Eliza Hall Medical Research Institute, told ABC News. “So, in a sense, it forced the government’s hand to accept that we need to move from ‘COVID Zero’ to ‘living with COVID.'”
But internal restrictions in New South Wales and Victoria, as well as the strong restrictions the government has imposed on intrastate travel, may linger for some time. According to current trends, the 80% target set by Morrison for vaccinations in mid-October is unlikely to be met.
As it stands, less than 35% of Australians are fully vaccinated, which places the nation among the lowest OECD countries.
Australia now administers doses at higher rates than the peaks observed in the United States, but supply remains a problem.
“Vaccination hesitation is rare,” Professor Mary-Louise McLaws, an epidemiologist at the University of New South Wales, told ABC News. “Anti-vaxxers exist here, but they are rare in Australia. The real problem has been the lack of supply. Our authorities have been too slow to acquire enough doses of vaccine for young people, who were supposed to receive Pfizer and confusion occurred when Pfizer was delivered.
This provoked intense criticism of the government for not being able to pursue vaccines urgently, as Morrison repeatedly told the public, “It’s not a race.”
The Australian government has now entered into agreements with other countries, including Britain and Singapore, to secure Pfizer doses sooner and help end the closure sooner.
While the government’s exit strategy marks a change of approach, some states show more willingness to relax restrictions.
Aside from national state border closures, citizens of most Australian states live with virtually no COVID lives, and the idea of opening their doors may prove unpopular.
New South Wales Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian has previously warned that other states cannot continue to live “inside their bubbles” forever.
Berejiklian announced on Thursday that New South Wales, Australia’s largest city, Sydney, will ease blockade restrictions from October, when authorities expect 70% of adults in their state to be vaccinated. At this point, he said, Sydney’s restaurants, cafes and pubs may reopen.
This is despite the fact that infections remain at record levels. On Saturday, New South Wales recorded 1,599 cases of COVID-19, the highest daily count since the pandemic began.
“I want to stress that while today the New South Wales government describes our plan, our roadmap for moving forward in New South Wales, we are definitely not out of the woods,” Berejiklian said during a daily briefing. “We know the number of cases is likely to peak next week, and we also know that our hospital system will be under more stress in October.”
In Melbourne, residents have grown tired of more than 220 cumulative days of closure. Yasmin Vachha, an elementary school teacher in the Victorian capital, has been teaching from home for 30 weeks since the state came in and closed the closures. He said the experience shows that the country “is not a united front” and that it is “increasingly difficult to see the light”.
“The kids are flat, the motivation is low and you notice that everything takes its toll,” he told ABC News. “We all have our own desperation to block and it’s getting harder every day. I hate that this is normal and we have to be okay. How are we in that position?”
Criticism is not limited to Australians currently in the country. In March 2020, the government closed its international borders, banning most foreigners and putting limits on total arrivals to help keep the virus at bay.
As a result, tens of thousands of Australians remain trapped abroad, some 34,000 registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as stranded abroad. The actual number of people who want to return home is probably much higher.
Some are deterred at the prospect of returning home through restrictive and costly quarantine measures, while others cannot secure the plane ticket home.
The policies have separated thousands of families and led to heartbreaking stories of Australians unable to get home to see terminally ill relatives. Many have been forced to miss weddings, births and funerals.
To make matters worse, Australia’s July halved the number of international arrivals, to around 3,000 passengers a week.
But in another sign that the Australian government is changing speed, for the first time since the pandemic began, Morrison acknowledged on Wednesday the frustration suffered by Australian expatriates and opened up the prospect of families being able to reunite at home. for Christmas: “You have saved lives by enduring and going through these difficulties, so thank you, I appreciate it and so do your fellow Australians.”
Morrison said his government was working hard to enforce a domestic quarantine system, to reconnect Australia with the world.
Now there are also indications that the government will lift the travel ban on Australians leaving the country. Australian human rights lawyers, an association of legal professionals, have pressured the government to stop their “bullying” of Australians living abroad.
Restrictions on internal borders have also caused tearing and frustration. According to The Guardian, a New South Wales resident this month has been unable to cross the border to receive vital cancer treatment in neighboring Queensland due to a mandatory quarantine at the hotel, and Father’s Day families separated by border closures were embraced across a state boundary that fell through the suburb of Coolangatta in Sydney.
A new app is being tested in South Australia that uses facial recognition technology and mobile phone alerts to replace the hotel system. In the Atlantic he was described as “Orwellian” in an article saying people “would be forced to unload it”, but an Australian government source said the terminology was misleading.
“The domestic quarantine application is for a selected cohort of South Australians who have applied to be part of the trial,” a government spokesman said. “If successful, it will help safely alleviate the burden of travel restrictions associated with the pandemic.”
According to McLaws, the issue of threatened civil liberties has been overwhelmed.
“While the restrictions are tough and we are tired of them, Australians are less obsessed with individual rights during this time,” he said. “Australians like their freedom, but they are not willing to have it at the cost of many deaths.”
While the new calendar to open society will be good news for those living under some of the world’s longest closures, an instant reopening or a “freedom day” doesn’t show up, according to Mueller. The government has observed high transmission rates in highly vaccinated countries such as the US and the UK, and will continue to take a tough approach, he said.
“Eventually, people will get to the point where they want to regain those freedoms,” he said. “And I think all political leaders and all state leaders recognize that, and I think the people of Australia also recognize that they will finally have to open up and that would mean the virus will circulate through the population.”
“Australia,” he added, “cannot remain an island forever.”