Vax and the City: Every public health official in Australia agrees that mass vaccination is the only way out of this crisis. We at Time Out recommend that you get vaccinated as soon as you can, if that is appropriate for your own health. Please speak to a medical professional about what is right for you. Here's what you need to know about how to get a vaccine right now.
NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian offered the citizens of NSW both good and bad news at the press briefing on September 1. On the hopeful side, NSW is now leading the nation for vaccination uptake, and at current rates, the state is set to reach the crucial target of 70 per cent of eligible adults fully vaccinated ahead of schedule, “by the middle of October”. Berejiklian also said that at 70 per cent vaccination coverage, fully vaxxed people could expect to “go for a meal, go out for a drink” and “expect a lot more freedoms as long as [they're] vaccinated”, but added that masks, capacity limits and vaccination passports were also going to become the norm. "It is key that we can confirm that people are vaccinated when they're attending an event or attending a venue," Berejiklian said. "The key to freedoms is proving that someone is vaccinated."
The premier also suggested that once 80 per cent of NSW residents had received their first dose, the state could project a date when international travel could resume, but added that reaching the 80 per cent target was proving extremely difficult for most countries around the world, with only Malta and Iceland having achieved such a high volume of double doses.
In less optimistic news, Berejiklian also stated that “it is impossible to eliminate the Delta strain,” confirming explicitly for the first time that returning to the “Covid zero” status that was once the prime objective of lockdowns was no longer feasible. “New South Wales has been successful until this point in time at getting rid of other strains of COVID but the Delta strain is a game changer and every state in Australia, sooner or later, is going to have to live with Delta,” Berejiklian said. “That’s why I’m calling on all my colleagues, other state premiers and first ministers, to stick to the national plan to make sure we give our citizens not only the freedoms they deserve but also learning to live with Covid as soon as we can.”
The premier said that September is the month for NSW residents to get vaccinated and for businesses to “start dusting off [their] Covid safe plans”, in anticipation of lockdown rules being eased in October. Berejiklian also called for employers to make sure their staff are vaccinated. Berejiklian has already asserted that once 70 per cent of eligible adults are double jabbed, lockdown rules will only be relaxed for the fully vaccinated, including those intending on returning to work.
NSW continues to record more than 1,000 cases of community transmission per day, and the premier warned that case numbers were likely to climb "for the next few weeks" and that the worse hospitalisation levels would spike in October, as lockdown restrictions began lifting.