NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian has said that unvaccinated people will not be able to take advantage of lifted lockdown restrictions, even when 80 per cent of the state’s population are vaccinated. Berejiklian has already said that when NSW reaches its ‘freedom day’, once 70 per cent of adults are double jabbed, lockdown measures will only be eased for fully vaccinated people. “If you don’t want to get vaccinated, that’s your choice,” Berejiklian said. “However, don’t assume that at 80 per cent double-dose vaccination that unvaccinated people are going to have all those freedoms.
“I want to make that point very clear. The government is yet to finalise its plans in relation to what happens at 80 per cent double dose. And our key message is: come forward and get vaccinated because once we start opening up at 70 per cent double-dose vaccination, the higher the rate of adult coverage, of people 16 and over, that are vaccinated, the better it is for all of us.”
Berejiklian said that the state’s stance on vaccination was because “we don’t people to think they can sit back and let everyone else do the hard work”, adding that many businesses were also likely to introduce their own ‘no jab, no service’ policies. Currently, 78.5 per cent of eligible adults in NSW have had at least one dose of a vaccine and 46.2 per cent are fully vaccinated.
Unconfirmed reports in recent days have alleged that the state’s chief medical officer, Dr Kerry Chant, had originally urged the premier to keep lockdown measures in place until 85 per cent of the eligible adult population had been fully vaccinated. However, this advice was reportedly rejected because it would have kept the state in lockdown until early 2022. When quizzed about this in the press briefing on September 10, Chant seemed to dodge the question without either confirming or denying its accuracy.
While the premier has offered the hope that lockdown measures could be eased by mid-October, she also urged the people of NSW “not to let your guard down”, adding, “we cannot allow ourselves to be complacent”. Some countries that have begun easing restrictions once high levels of vaccination have been achieved have still experienced surges in positive cases, although death and hospitalisation rates have typically remained low due to the protection of vaccines.
Encouragingly, after a period of exponential growth, daily case numbers are now showing Sydney’s lockdown is flattening the curve, which could indicate the outbreak has already reached its peak.