NSW Premiere Gladys Berejiklian has set a potential date for when things will go back to normal post-pandemic, and unfortunately the earliest we can expect to get out of this mess seems to be the end of October. Brb, crying.
Late October is the magic date because it’s when NSW is expected to reach 70 per cent of the eligible population being fully vaccinated against COVID, according to the Doherty report. The report was published to advise the National Cabinet on how to transition Australia’s national COVID response.
“As per the Doherty Institute report, two doses of 70 per cent vaccination [is the target] and NSW, if we had the current pace, we will hit that around the end of October,” Gladys Berejiklian said.
“[We will reach] 80 per cent towards the end of November. According to the Doherty report, that is when life gets back to normal, that is when we have a different approach to COVID, when freedoms that we had will be in place and we can look forward to having a normal existence.”
https://twitter.com/kumitaguchi/status/1425304430157582336?s=20
Currently, 23.7 per cent of Australians are fully vaccinated, with 45.4 per cent of the population having their first jab.
In NSW, there have been 4.5 million doses administered in total – so actually, we’re not that far off the original bench mark Berejiklian gave of getting 6 million jabs by the end of August to ease restrictions.
“The challenge for us is how we live in September and October,” she said.
“With 6 million jabs by the end of August, if achieved, there will be opportunities for us in parts of the communities where cases are low and vaccination rates are high for them to do more than they do today.”
It’s a little sliver of hope for those of us under our seventh week of lockdown in Sydney, but considering the state recorded 344 new locally acquired cases of COVID today, I’m not sure how soon we can expect restrictions to ease.
