Home visits could be left out of NSW’s reopening plans as Gladys gears up for 70 per cent

Gladys Berejiklian has walked back a claims 'everything’ would be open when NSW is 70 per cent vaccinated, with one thing people can’t do.

Home visits could be off the cards for some time after the NSW Premier hinted at freedoms that will come once the state’s vaccination target is met.

Gladys Berejiklian said people could expect to dine out, have a drink at the pub and attend public events once the state reaches 70 per cent double doses.

But indoor gatherings may not get the green light.

“(We) always take a responsible approach,” she said.

“We know that indoor gatherings or people coming to your home are high risk.

“But outside of that, there are many, many things we can’t do now that we should be able to do when we have 70 per cent of the adult population vaccinated.

The Premier said high risk indoor settings would have to wait. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Christian Gilles

“That’s what the national plan says.”

She confessed there would likely be density requirements in venues, QR code check-ins which also showed whether a person was vaccinated and mask wearing in certain settings.

“Life will be much better at 70 per cent double dose than it is now,” the Premier said.

The Premier was probed on whether restrictions would also lift in areas of concern once the vaccination target was met.

“Everybody should expect a level of freedom which they don’t have today,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“It will depend on a number of other factors but let me be clear, no matter where you live in NSW, please expect to have much more freedom than you do now as long as you’re vaccinated fully.”

Ms Berejiklian’s comments were a more subdued version of her excited declaration earlier in the morning that she would open “everything” at 70 per cent.

Speaking on Sunrise, she said once the state hits the double-dose vaccination target “you can expect to do everything that you missed doing”.

“Whether it is attending a public event or having a drink, if you are fully vaccinated and the state has hit its 70 per cent double dose target, please expect to do all of those things we have been missing for too long,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“I’m looking forward to that and I want to thank everybody for coming forward to getting vaccinated.”

The Premier also pledged to ensure Australians could come home for Christmas with the state forecast to hit its 80 per cent double dose target in November.

More than 1000 cases were recorded in NSW on Wednesday. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ Gaye Gerard

The Premier conceded during Wednesday’s Covid press conference that it was “impossible” to defeat the Delta strain, and reiterated that NSW and all other states would have to live with daily cases of Delta, urging other state premiers not to deny her constituents the “freedoms they deserve” once the state reached 80 per cent vaccination rates.

She said it would be cruel if other premiers, such as Western Australia’s Mark McGowan, maintained a hard border with NSW even when the majority of the state was immunised.

“Our position is the one we stated from the outset: it’s impossible to eliminate the Delta strain,” she said.

NSW recorded 1116 new local cases of Covid-19 and four deaths, all unvaccinated and with underlying health conditions.

There were three, aged in their 50s, 70s and 80s, from Sydney’s southwest and the fourth was a woman in her 60s from western Sydney.