Steven Miles says deal to ease restrictions and lockdowns endorsed before NSW outbreak

Deputy Premier Steven Miles has suggested a deal to ease border restrictions and lockdowns may change because it was endorsed before the NSW outbreak.

The exploding case numbers in NSW do not change the vaccination milestones for easing restrictions and lockdowns, according to Prime Minister Scott Morrison even as the Queensland Government insists the deal has changed.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles says Queensland may not open its border to NSW even when vaccination rates hit 80 per cent, while he insisted the four-stage plan for easing restrictions based by vaccination rates was “endorsed before the NSW outbreak”.

But Prime Minister Scott Morrison said a zero-Covid Australia was “highly unlikely” and insisted the number of cases in the community, particularly NSW and Victoria, had no bearing on the plan Premiers agreed to on easing restrictions on Australians.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says a zero-Covid Australia is highly unlikely. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

National cabinet will receive an updated briefing from Doherty Institute this Friday, with federal government sources saying Premiers were misinterpreting the modelling.

A Federal Government spokesman said the findings were clear about what would happen when the nation reached 70 per cent and 80 per cent vaccination rates.

“We can move forward with our reopening plan because there will be far less serious illness for our health system to manage,” he said.

While the modelling used 30 Covid cases in an outbreak in its projections, the exponential growth of the virus spread means that having an outbreak with hundreds of cases a day will have limited impact on the overall outcomes.

Announcing another day of zero cases for Queensland, Mr Miles said the states had agreed to a relaxation of rules under the Doherty research at a time when case numbers were very different.

“We’re signed up and committed to the plan that national cabinet endorsed but that was a plan that was endorsed before the NSW outbreak,” he said.

He said people who interpreted the Doherty research as meaning that the whole country would open up at 80 per cent vaccination were verballing that research.

“Nobody signed up to that plan,” he said.

“We signed up to a plan that said at 70 per cent lockdown would be much less likely, and at 80 per cent they would likely only need to be very targeted.”

Deputy Premier Steven Miles says it will depend on the NSW outbreak on whether Queensland lifts border restrictions at 80 per cent immunisation rates. Picture: Liam Kidston

But Mr Morrison said lockdowns were not a sustainable way to deal with the virus.

“As we go forward, once you get over 70 per cent and particularly over 80 per cent, lockdowns do more harm than good,” he told the ABC.

“At 80 per cent, we know from the work that you can start treating Covid like other infectious diseases with those other basic precautions in place. That‘s what living with the virus looks like.”

Doherty Institute researcher Jodie McVernon said the Doherty report did not specifically address the NSW situation, where a state would be coming down off high caseloads.

“What our modelling found that as vaccination coverage increases vaccination does much more of the heavy lifting of the public health response,” she said.

“We’re also saying very clearly that unless those targets are achieved at some population level … if we have patchy uptake or we have groups who are left behind, then we will continue to see outbreaks.

“In that situation, public health response teams will need to do what keeps the population safe.”

Queensland’s Deputy chief health officer Dr James Smith said vaccination rates weren’t the only thing authorities would monitor.

“We do need to dial up and down in terms of restrictions in place, because it‘s not all about vaccinations, even though vaccinations are very important and vaccination is the biggest tool in our shed really,” he said.

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader David Crisafulli called for a greater push to dispel anti-vax messaging in the community and online.

He said all of the state government advertising has focused on promoting the past or the economic plan.

“I’m not sure we’ve spent enough focusing on the importance of vaccines and the importance of why we need to be on a path to get back to normality. That’s the sort of advertising campaign I want to see.”

He said there was a “certain element of people spreading mistruths”.

“Let’s push back and let’s show why vaccines are safe, let’s show why vaccines are important,” Mr Crisafulli said.

“Let’s use every channel we can, let’s use every sensible voice we can to get the message out.”