NSW restrictions to stay until ‘majority vaccinated’

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says beating Delta is almost impossible and the only way NSW opens up fully again is when the “majority are vaccinated”.

NSW Premier Gladys says beating Delta is almost impossible and the only way NSW opens up fully again is when the “majority are vaccinated”.

NSW recorded 124 new locally-acquired cases of coronavirus on Thursday. Of those, only 37 were isolating for the entire period while they were infectious.

Speaking with reporters, Ms Berejiklian said nowhere in the world had successfully defeated the Delta variant and NSW was no different.

“There’s no doubt that Delta has beaten every single jurisdiction in the world but that’s why we’ve always said in NSW that we want to get close to zero in terms of the numbers of

people infectious in the community,” she said.

“We appreciate that cases are going to keep popping up during Delta. But the challenge for us is to live as safely and freely as we can until we get vaccination rates up.”

She said NSW would “be living with some level of restriction … until the majority of the population is vaccinated”.

“That’s why, whether it’s health experts or ourselves, we urge everybody to get vaccinated. It’s really important.

“Our real key to freedom is having a high percentage of vaccination, both doses. Even one dose gives you great protection.

“The more people we have vaccinated, the quicker we can live life as freely as we would like.

“Please, please, come forward and get vaccinated. It’s so important. It’s critical for us to have as much of our population vaccinated as quickly as we can.”

Ms Berejiklian shared one piece of good news out of Thursday’s numbers — there are zero cases in intensive care in NSW who have received both doses of a covid vaccine.

“We know the vaccine prevents serious illness,” she said.

“There is currently nobody in intensive care who has had both doses of vaccine at any age.

“That means the vaccine works in preventing serious illness and we really need people to remember that and feel confident when they’re getting vaccinated.”

Ms Berejiklian was asked whether the lockdown would end on July 31.

She said any changes to the lockdown rules depends on what happens in coming days in terms of new cases and how many of those were infectious in the community.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian. Picture: Mick Tsikas/Getty Images

“We’ll look closely at that but it will be based on the health advice.

“It will be based on how many infections we have in the community. The last thing we want is to be in a stage where we keep going in and out of harsh lockdown. That’s not something we want for our citizens.

“We want to provide our citizens with certainty and that’s what we’ll do next week.”

News.com.au’s Our Best Shot campaign answers your questions about the Covid-19 vaccine roll out.

It’s fair to say the vaccine rollout has confused Australians. We’ll cut through the spin and give you clear information so you can make an informed decision.