Sydney’s Covid-19 infections tell story of vaccination success

Hidden among the misery of rising coronavirus infections in Sydney is a statistic that shows so clearly the way out of the pandemic.

Hidden among the misery of rising coronavirus infections in Sydney is a statistic that shows so clearly the way out of the pandemic.

NSW recorded 97 new local cases on Wednesday and the focus was rightly on the local government area at the centre of the outbreak – Fairfield in Sydney’s southwest.

The state’s Premier Gladys Berejiklian talked about the need to follow the rules and stay home and she even extended the lockdown for two more weeks.

All of that helps turn the tide against the highly-infectious Delta variant, but the best weapon is vaccination.

The following statistics tell part of that story.

Of the local cases in NSW up to the week of July 3, 87 per cent were unvaccinated.

Vaccination status of local cases in NSW up to 3rd July
- 3% of cases (9) were fully vaccinated
- 4% of cases (11) were partially vaccinated
- 87% of cases (251) were unvaccinated pic.twitter.com/umxBxZwMN7

— dbRaevn (@dbRaevn) July 14, 2021

On July 10, NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant revealed that of 47 people in hospital with Covid-19, 79 per cent were unvaccinated. There was nobody in hospital who had received two doses of a covid vaccine.

If you are vaccinated, the chances of hospitalisation shrink dramatically. It is a message shared time and again by chief health officers around the country and highlighted by those statistics.

Vaccinating against Covid-19 is the only way for Australians to get their normal lives back, but as a nation we’re struggling.

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.

The vaccination message is being driven home around the country by leaders in every state and territory.

Speaking on Tuesday, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said there was an easy way out of this.

“This ends by everybody getting two jabs and then we’re able to say we’ve all done our very best to protect everyone who needs to be protected,” Mr Andrews said.

“There’ll then still be from time to time masks and things of that nature but not lockdowns.”

As it stands right now, less than 12 per cent of eligible Australians are fully vaccinated. And just one-in-three eligible Australians have had the first dose.

We’re rank last out of the 38 OECD nations.

Ms Berejiklian said on Wednesday that a focus of vaccinations in NSW would be “aged care workers and teachers in those key local government areas” around Sydney’s southwest.

Dr Lesley Russell is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Menzies Centre for Health Policy at the University of Sydney.

She has been a senior health policy adviser to the US Surgeon-General during the Obama administration and adviser to the Australian Labor Party.

She says Australia has “really failed when it comes to vaccinations” and the Morrison government has “not shown the necessary flexibility or adaptability to change” when things went wrong.

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Australian Medical Association President Dr Tony Bartone with a covid vaccine at CSL in Parkville. Picture: Paul Jeffers/NCA NewsWire

“We went from managing the infections very well, and we still do that brilliantly, but that’s not enough to control a pandemic and we’ve really failed when it comes to vaccinations,” she told news.com.au.

“I basically attribute that to the fact that … the federal government has had to make decisions around vaccines starting back last year (and) they’ve made decisions that have either turned out to be wanting or to be wrong.”

Dr Russell said the issues with blood clots linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine were not properly communicated to the public.

“They weren’t quick enough to investigate the science of what’s going on but also openly communicate with the public in a reassuring way,” she said.

“This is being compounded by their lack of transparency and unwillingness to admit that they’re wrong on a lot of things. We started with that pretty early when vaccine deliveries weren’t working out like they were supposed to.

“When it became obvious that the rollout was lagging, they didn’t say, ‘Let’s get this going.’”