NSW has hit the 80% single-dose milestone for COVID vaccine coverage and it’s a huge feat for a state that has been slammed by the Delta outbreak over the past few months.
The 80% achievement was announced at Wednesday’s coronavirus press conference, along with the news that the curfew will be eased in western and southwest Sydney.
“Pleasingly today, our state hits the milestone of 80% first-dose vaccination, an incredible milestone given the journey we’ve all been on and I can’t thank the community enough for responding in such a positive way for our calls to get vaccinated,” Premier Gladys Berejiklian said from outside the Qudos Bank Arena megaclinic.
You know it’s good news when Berejiklian drops a cheeky “pleasingly.”
“To reach our first dose of 80% is a huge tribute to everybody in the community and some of our communities in western and south-western Sydney have vaccination rates closer to 90%,” she added.
“Just an outstanding result compared to where we’ve been and where we are today.”
Because of this – and the particularly high vaccination rates across western and southwest Sydney – the evening curfew in the 12 LGAs of concern will be lifted from Thursday onwards.
“We can’t move on anything else just now. We need everybody to hold the line,” Berejiklian said.
“Please make sure that if you live in those local government areas of concern that you stick to every other rule that’s in place.
“We’ve seen a stabilisation in the last few days and we don’t want to see that trend go the wrong way.”
Overnight 1,259 new cases and 12 deaths, one of whom was a woman in her 30s, were recorded. There’s your reminder that this virus sadly does not fuck around.
This 80% sign-dose milestone inches us even closer to the big goal of 70% double-dose coverage. As of Wednesday morning, 47.5% of adults in NSW are fully vaccinated with both doses.
When that happens (which is estimated to be around mid-October) we’ll finally be allowed to go out again to restaurants, cafes and – you guessed it – even the pub.
All adult Aussies (yep, even those of us under 40) are currently able to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Click here to see which clinics are offering it, and talk to a doctor for more info.
The best vaccine is the first one you can get, and that’ll be our ticket out of this mess.
