Military checkpoints among proposals to help in the war against Delta

Military checkpoints could be set up at ‘hot zones’ to stop people leaving, under a plan for Greater Sydney to learn to live with Covid until vaccination reaches a critical mass.

Military checkpoints on roadways out of “hot zones” to allow regional travel for low-case “green zones” are among the measures to be discussed as a means for Greater Sydney residents to live with the virus.

Over the next 48 hours, senior NSW government ­ministers will work on a road map for the Greater Sydney population until vaccination reaches a critical mass.

NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant and Premier Gladys Berejiklian announce NSW’s Covid breakout is a national emergency on Friday. Picture: Getty Images

While health officials are continuing to work to try to contain the virus, Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Friday declared the government would be focusing on a plan to allow NSW residents to live “as freely and as a safely as possible”.

She said much of the population should be vaccinated “according to the federal vaccination rollout, by the end of October”.

“Our challenge is, as I said yesterday, to live as freely and as safely as possible until we get enough vaccines in arms,” she said. “That means that we need to live as freely and as safely as possible during Aug­ust, September and October.

“We have to provide a road map to a citizen as to how best we can live freely, but also as openly as possible.”

A senior government source said the focus on the road map would remain on keeping local government areas with high case numbers locked down as vaccination ­efforts were increased.

Residents in the “hot zones” could continue to live under stay-at-home orders with physical barriers or checkpoints put in place on major roads in and out of the zones.

“At the moment, it is very much based on trust,” the minister said.

“The government might have to get tougher on a more micro-level. This could mean hardening the lockdown like putting up physical barriers.

“We’ve been offered troops – let’s use them.”

Treasurer Dominic Perrottet wants children back in school.

Police Commissioner Mick Fuller yesterday confirmed Ms Berejiklian had passed on an offer by Prime Minister Scott Morrison for Australian Defence Force ­assistance, which had been ­declined as NSW Police were already pre-planning its own operation.

Liberal sources yesterday revealed several requests of troops assistance had been made, with the first during a conversation between the two leaders on July 7.

In Victoria, ADF members were deployed as part of Operation COVID-19 Assist to help the Victorian Department of Health visit positive cases, close contacts and returned travellers, to ensure they were aware of their status, while providing information and support services they might have required while isolating.

Residents on the Central Coast and Illawarra along with the northern beaches are likely to enjoy an easing of restrictions, along with a cautious and “Covid-safe” reopening of retail and hospitality.

Residents in the zones with no community transmissions might also be permitted to travel to regional areas.

“We will be travelling by the end of August or early September, so long as you are not from a hot zone,” the minister said.

One government minister said the first priority was determining how children might be able to return to school for face-to-face teaching.

The minister said this could be undertaken in age groups, as occurred last year with masks.

Another senior minister said he believed the government should implement a gradation system hinged on vaccination rates.

“We need to give the community incentives, like we’ll open up the beer gardens when we get to 40 per cent,” the minister said.

“It is a really good incentive to get people to get vaccinated.

“It will give people hope, and that what we need right now.”

As well as setting out the road map, Treasurer Dominic Perrottet will spend the weekend working with Treasury on a recovery plan, having spent much of Friday speaking with industry groups.

He, too, said school had to be the “number one” focus, together with keeping people in jobs.

“We bounced back before and we will again,” he said.

“It is about driving the economy and keeping people jobs.”