‘Really worried’: AMA president says lockdown not working against Delta

Doctors are ‘really worried’ the current lockdown affecting 14 million Australians is not enough to beat the virus.

The president of the Australian Medical Association has warned that current lockdown measures are “simply not strong enough” to contain the highly-transmissible Delta variant of Covid-19.

Omar Khorshid said doctors at the AMA were “really worried” the current lockdown, affecting 14 million Australians, was not working, as he called for a rethink on the country’s vaccine rollout strategy.

An estimated 1700 people currently have the virus in Australia, where an additional 154 locally acquired cases were recorded in the past 24 hours, according to federal government data.

”Australia’s lockdown strategy – that’s worked so well with all the previous outbreaks we’ve had – is simply not strong enough, not fast enough, to deal with Delta,” Dr Khorshid said.

“And it’s possible a new approach, in particular for Sydney but possibly for the rest of the country, will be required.”

The vast majority of new cases are in Greater Sydney, which recorded 111 new cases of the virus, as well as the death of an 89-year-old man, in the 24 hours to 8pm on Thursday.

Overall, NSW recorded 136 new cases.

Health officials are grappling to bring the Delta variant – which can be spread through even fleeting airborne contact – under control in the nation’s largest city, which is now in its fourth week of lockdown with no definite end in sight.

Sydney is now in its fourth week of lockdown and NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says vaccination is not happening fast enough. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

Dr Khorshid, speaking in Perth on Thursday afternoon, called Australia’s Delta outbreak a “national emergency” and said the AMA was alarmed case numbers were not yet decreasing in Sydney.

Lockdowns are also in place for South Australians and Victorians who, like people in Greater Sydney, can only leave home to exercise, buy food or medicine, or for a few other essential reasons.

Dr Khorshid said the peak medical body had been in contact with the country’s expert immunisation panel, ATAGI, to ask them to reconsider their advice around the AstraZeneca vaccine “given the reality in Sydney”.

ATAGI has recommended that Pfizer, which is in short supply and extremely high demand in Australia, be the preferred vaccine for people under 60.

NSW Premier Gladys on Thursday morning pleaded with the state’s residents to get vaccinated against the virus as a matter of urgency.

She indicated that NSW would seek doses of the Pfizer vaccine from other states.

But Dr Khorshid said it was unlikely that large amounts of Pfizer would “find their way” into NSW “any time soon”.

National cabinet met later on Thursday afternoon and knocked back the request from the NSW government to allocate the state more doses of the Pfizer vaccine.