Lockdown ‘critical’ as young people drive Sydney’s COVID-19 outbreak

Young people are driving transmission in Sydney’s worsening COVID-19 outbreak, prompting the NSW government to refocus its vaccine strategy for critical workers under 40, the age group with the highest number of cases.

NSW Health announced four locations for its first walk-in state vaccination clinics offering AstraZeneca and will prioritise Pfizer for supermarket workers from south-west and western Sydney.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says the next few days will be critical in determining how Sydneysiders live in the coming weeks.Credit: Dean Sewell

The four new walk-in clinics will be set up across the Merrylands and Guildford area for the next three weeks, offering AstraZeneca to people aged 40 and over. Bookings and GP referrals are not required.

The outbreak has claimed two more lives, a woman in her 80s in Pendle Hill and a man in his 80s at Campbelltown Hospital, taking the number of deaths in the present outbreak to 10.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard said while some parts of Sydney were in an “extremely hard lockdown”, it was clear that “we need to get a new capacity to attack the virus through additional vaccines – particularly into the younger workforce”.

“There is a massive percentage of people under 40 who are critical to Sydney’s ongoing daily needs and quite simply we need the vaccines to be able to offer it to those people,” Mr Hazzard said.

In line with the government’s vaccine push, community leaders in western Sydney on Monday said they were increasing their use of social media, YouTube and radio in various languages to push messages of social distancing and vaccination safety particularly to younger residents. However, the biggest challenge was persuading people to put aside their fears of AstraZeneca.

NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said a “very tight lockdown” remained critical because of the highly infectious nature of the Delta variant and the low supply of Pfizer. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has also stressed that a lockdown was the only solution to combating the outbreak.

Ms Berejiklian did not rule out changing some settings from July 31, the day after Sydney’s lockdown is due to end.

“Some settings might change. We might need to go harder in some areas, release some settings in others. So please know that our government is always looking at the best options we have available,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“I think it’s important for us to convey what life looks like on July 31 in the one go.”

Dr Chant also “apologised ahead of time” to anybody who had their second Pfizer vaccination cancelled as doses were redirected to hotspots where many young critical workers lived.

The government has foreshadowed redirecting Pfizer vaccines after national cabinet knocked back Premier Berejiklian’s plea for doses from other states to be sent to NSW.

NSW recorded 145 new cases on Monday, with 76 of those in the community while infectious.

Ms Berejiklian said the next few days would be crucial in any decision-making and her crisis cabinet held a lengthy meeting late on Monday to devise a roadmap for the coming weeks.

“We also want to make sure we get the settings right and there’s no doubt that during lockdown we’ve observed which settings are having a better effect than others,” Ms Berejiklian said.

Ms Berejiklian said any changes to restrictions would consider specific measures for communities, taking into account if they had higher or lower loads of virus.

Dr Chant on Monday said data showed that younger people were driving transmission in the current outbreak.

“What’s been interesting is the young profile, and it makes sense. The only people that are actually moving about are essential workers. So, people that are working in logistics and distribution,” she said.

“Critical workers that come from that area, that support Sydney, and even NSW and beyond. So it is important that we consider how vaccinating that group would potentially prevent transmission.”

Dr Chant said health authorities were leaving “no stone unturned” in attempting to recalibrate the state’s vaccine strategy with a more targeted approach to younger at-risk communities in south-west Sydney.

The most recent data from NSW Health shows that people aged between 18 and 49 have accounted for about 56 per cent of the state’s cases from the outbreak, which originated in Bondi after a positive test on June 16.

Dr Chant also indicated a return to face-to-face learning for the state’s students was not imminent, with the Delta variant affecting children more than last year’s strain.

“I think this is a real concern. Whereas with the previous strains we didn’t see children impacted, we’re seeing a young age cohort impacted down to very young babies,” she said.

“That’s the basis of why we recommended that school not go back to face-to-face learning. And I would urge anyone … if you can avoid sending children to school, that is an appropriate response.”

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