Gladys Berejiklian says there is Covid hope but it’s hard to see
The Premier may see the light at the end of the tunnel but for now the rest of NSW is being kept in the dark, writes James O’Doherty.
Opinion
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A Strathfield woman this week was left to care for her Covid-positive husband for three days before receiving a phone call from NSW Health.
The man was tested on Saturday and received a text message telling him of his positive result on Sunday.
It wasn’t until Tuesday that NSW Health phoned the man, who by that time was too sick to talk to contact tracers.
With no information provided by NSW Health beyond a text message promising that “a NSW Health Representative will be in contact,” the woman had to Google how best to care for her husband as his condition worsened.
A new policy of notifying new Covid patients of their results via text before cases are interviewed is one example of the outbreak overwhelming the system.
Another is the decision to stop listing exposure sites like supermarkets and shopping centres in Greater Sydney on the NSW Health website.
Non-urgent elective surgery at most of Sydney’s private hospitals will also be paused from Monday with staff drafted to join the Covid fight.
Yet despite announcing a whopping 681 new Covid cases on Thursday, Premier Gladys Berejiklian can still see the “light at the end of the tunnel”.
The light may be there, but with strict lockdown measures set to stay in place for months, it is difficult to see. The message at the daily Covid media conferences can be a confusing one.
On Wednesday, chief health officer Kerry Chant made her views clear that case numbers need to come down. But 24 hours later, Berejiklian was insisting that life will “look much rosier” when vaccination rates increase.
The Premier promised that higher vaccination rates will bring more freedoms “no matter what”.
But any easing of restrictions will be guided by advice from the risk-averse Dr Chant.
Her message is becoming increasingly out-of-step with the Premier’s talk of living with the virus. Dr Chant’s relationship with her minister, Brad Hazzard, also appears to be getting more frayed. Pointedly, the chief health officer wouldn’t say this week whether she had advised for harsher lockdown measures.
“What we do is define the problems. So we define ... the settings that transmission is occurring,” she said on Wednesday.
Dr Chant insisted she and the Premier have a “shared vision” of getting to “very low levels of community transmission”.
The Prime Minister is also sending a different message to Premier Berejiklian.
“The lockdown in Sydney has to work for it to be lifted. It has to work,” he said yesterday.
NSW COVID-19 CASE LOCATIONS, CASES AND TESTS
Use the hamburger button below to filter results by cases, tests and time period. After selecting your option, click the menu again to show the new map. Source: NSW Health
“Suppression cannot be dispensed with for vaccination, when we have the vaccination levels we have now.”
So why has the Premier shifted to a message of vaccination first, suppression second?
The message of hope could be an attempt to ensure people stay at home and follow the rules.
A senior source worries that without laying out the “stepping stones” to freedom, people may start to rebel. A “strong flavour” of what September and October looks like will be provided “next week,” the Premier said on Thursday.
In promising extra freedoms, the Premier is attempting to put a positive spin on objectively bad transmission rates.
Remember, the aim of the lockdown was initially to reduce the number of cases “infectious in the community” to zero.
NSW COVID-19 VACCINATION MAP
Use the hamburger button to select vaccinations by first and second dose over time. After selecting your option, click the menu again to show the new map. Source: NSW Health
The spin doesn’t end there.
The Premier seems unwilling to concede certain inconvenient truths. She blames transmission rates on people breaking the rules, despite the majority of transmission occurring within essential workplaces and households.
“For the vast majority of people, it’s not anybody doing the wrong thing,” deputy chief health officer Marianne Gale said on Thursday.
The hope of getting kids back to the classroom is another example. The Premier wouldn’t even admit that home-schooling will be in place at least for the rest of Term 3.
NSW residents must also face the prospect of being locked out of other states for the foreseeable future.
Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan has made it clear that border restrictions will continue to be in his arsenal to fight the virus. In Victoria, Daniel Andrews has taken repeated potshots across the Murray.
Asked about the prospect of Christmas at home for NSW residents, the Premier on Thursday said it was “too early” to assume what other states would do when we reach 80 per cent vaccination rates.
“I appreciate how upsetting it’s been for people who live, or have relatives, in other states not to be able to visit them at particular times.
“But every state is going to have to confront the prospect that ... we can’t live in our bubble forever,” she said.
That is true, but there’s no indication other Premiers share her view of when that will be.
The Premier may see the light at the end of the tunnel, but for now the rest of NSW is being kept in the dark.
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