Project hosts shocked by guest’s grim prediction for Sydney lockdown

The Project’s Sydney panellists were left speechless when an expert guest delivered this prediction about the city’s latest lockdown.

The Project’s Sydney panellists were left speechless during Sunday night’s episode when an expert guest delivered a grim warning about just how long the city’s latest lockdown could last.

Professor Mary-Louise McLaws, an adviser with the World Health Organisation’s Covid response and a frequent guest of the show, appeared on the program to offer some insight about when Sydney and Melbourne’s current lockdowns might end.

Despite Sydney still recording over 100 new cases each day, McLaws said she thought numbers were “plateauing”, which made her “cautiously optimistic” about how the state is handling the outbreak.

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Professor Mary-Louise McLaws on The Project.

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But, she warned, that does not mean she thinks we’ll be leaving lockdown any time soon, saying that cannot happen until well after the number of new cases that were infectious in the community comes down to zero. Sydney’s lockdown is currently scheduled to end next Friday, July 30.

“We still need another three to four weeks because we need to get that proportion [of cases in people who haven’t been in full lockdown] to zero. Once we’ve got that to zero, then we need that to continue for 14 days to ensure we’ve mitigated everything,” she said.

“Now, you could lift some small restrictions off, but you wouldn’t be able to lift all of them off until 28 days after that first zero of anybody out in the community that hadn’t been in full lockdown.

“It’s a long duration: Expect another two months before we’ve absolutely eradicated it … but we don’t have to stay in lockdown for that long.”

As that prediction hung in the air – restrictions lifted 28 days after our community transmission hits zero – panellist Tommy Little broke the silence.

“Wow. Sorry professor, I was just looking at my Sydney colleagues, who all look shocked,” he said, as the camera cut to Sydney-based Lisa Wilkinson and Jan Fran, who both appeared speechless.

Lisa Wilkinson.

Jan Fran.

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“Yes, it will take at least four weeks to get that proportion of people who are not in full isolation to zero … We need to live at zero for at least 14 days to know that we’re safe, and then we can start lifting these restrictions,” Prof McLaws said.

The UNSW epidemiologist also offered some advice about how Sydneysiders could help to avoid further community transmission, saying people should mask up outdoors more regularly. Currently, masks are only required outdoors in situations where physical distancing is difficult, like outdoor markets or cafe queues.

“I still notice people aren’t wearing a mask when they’re walking their dog or walking, and that’s not exercise. You can still be exhaling or inhaling particles with virus, so please wear a mask when you leave home,” she said.

She also said she’d like to see on-site Covid testing at work and building sites.
But she offered some encouraging words for Victorians, saying that she thought the state was “more on top of” its current outbreak than NSW.

“They went in lockdown on the third day, when they had about 14 cases. But quite frankly, any other state and territory, you need to lock down when you have one escaped Delta, because they are so fast and so fit. But I imagine that Victoria will get ahead of this a lot faster than [NSW].”