Sydney lockdown by any other name just as tedious

On Thursday, NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant rejected the idea of a three-day lockdown for Sydney. The purpose of a lockdown, Dr Chant said, was “you want everybody to stay in the same place, and that allows you to get any backlog of any contact tracing”. But she said Sydney was not in that situation “where we are not getting to people in terms of the contact tracing”. Fast-forward a day and after 22 new cases, taking the total to 71, Premier Gladys Berejiklian blinked. That is despite the fact all but one of the new cases are linked to a known cluster or case. The Premier imposed a week-long “stay at home” order from 11.59pm Friday for a million people in four local government areas – Woollahra, Waverley, Randwick and the City of Sydney. According to Dr Chant, the higher number of new cases coming in and a growing list of exposure sites prompted the change in health advice.

Ms Berejiklian was at pains to avoid the L-word. But Sydneysiders in the affected areas know they are in a lockdown and would have appreciated the Premier levelling with them. Residents of the four LGAs must not leave their home except for four essential reasons: education; exercise in groups of less than 10; shopping for essential goods; and providing compassionate care. The lockdown also applies to anyone who has worked in the four local government areas in the past 14 days – which is probably hundreds of thousands more people. For all that, the question needs to be asked: How many people among those with Covid-19 are seriously ill? But the virus is serious and long Covid is emerging as a problem.

As NSW political correspondent Yoni Bashan writes, Ms Berejiklian used clever language to deliver her unpalatable measure. While refusing to use the word lockdown, she tried to spin the lockdown as an anodyne restriction on “four local government areas”, as though a lockdown of the heart of the nation’s largest city, with its corporate offices, cultural attractions, restaurants, shops and a casino, is somehow commensurate with locking down a suburban LGA. For our largest state, the move is unprecedented.

The Christmas lockdown of the northern beaches was not directly comparable. Only about a quarter as many people were locked down. The inclusion of the CBD in this lockdown adds to the economic pressures. So does the fact school holidays began across the nation’s three largest states on Friday. The lockdown will disrupt travel and accommodation bookings in every state and territory. The lockdown has left the hospitality sector “absolutely flabbergasted”.

Restaurant and Catering Australia chief executive Wes Lambert says that based on the rules introduced earlier in the week, businesses stocked up and prepared staff, who must now be stood down. Mr Lambert estimates that about $200m in bookings and another $60m worth of spoiled produce will be lost. Unaccustomed as the Berejiklian government is with lockdowns, it needs to communicate better with businesses to ensure they understand the rules and that financial losses are minimised.

Given the disruptions and the potential threat to health, hard questions must continue to be asked about why an unvaccinated limousine driver was allowed to transport airline crews to quarantine, allegedly triggering the outbreak. The lockdown comes as Australia’s vaccine rollout passed seven million first jabs completed. Greater and faster progress is clearly needed. But the lockdown raises other pertinent issues. It suggests the Berejiklian government, which has handled the pandemic more sensibly than other states, is not really prepared for containment rather than elimination of Covid.

Judging by overseas experience, especially with the Delta variant, living alongside Covid will be a consequence of opening our international borders sooner or later. Australia has done brilliantly compared with most nations in handling the pandemic. But we have a long way to go to come to grips with its impact on our lives.