Gladys Berejiklian says no way back to zero Covid-19 cases

Gladys Berejiklian has conceded that severe ­NSW restrictions will ­remain in place until November, as WA warned it may keep its borders closed.

Gladys Berejiklian says the focus has shifted to a ‘dual strategy’ of suppressing further outbreaks and prioritising an aggressive vaccination campaign across NSW. Picture: Flavio Brancaleone

Gladys Berejiklian has conceded NSW will not return to zero Covid-19 cases and that severe ­restrictions and lockdowns will ­remain in place until November, as Western Australia warned it may keep its borders closed despite a national agreement to open up after jab rates hit 70 to 80 per cent.

With NSW and WA warning of continuing restrictions, Scott Morrison announced the emergency purchase of one million Pfizer vaccines from Poland, with 530,000 to be redirected into 12 Sydney hotspots for 20-to-39-year-olds in an effort to avoid surges in deaths and hospitalisations.

Ms Berejiklian, who imposed a snap statewide lockdown on Saturday, said she would not risk unnecessary deaths by reopening the state too soon, with health officials adopting a new strategy after NSW recorded 881 new cases and eight deaths in 48 hours.

Ms Berejiklian said the focus had shifted to a “dual strategy” of suppressing further outbreaks and prioritising an aggressive vaccination campaign across NSW, which would see Covid-19 restrictions in place until at least 80 per cent of residents had received “double dose” vaccinations. On current projections, that would occur around mid-November.

“This is a time when all of us have to take stock and take the situation for what it is,” she said. “It’s not possible to eliminate it completely. We have to learn to live with it. The best chance we have to live with it freely and safely is to get the case numbers down as low as possible.”

The NSW crackdown came as West Australian Premier Mark McGowan broke national cabinet ranks on Sunday by declaring he would pursue a zero-Covid policy even after WA reached 80 per cent vaccine coverage.

In a fracturing of the national cabinet’s commitment to a four-phase reopening plan, Mr McGowan said he would reserve the right to impose targeted lockdowns even after WA vaccinated most of its population.

Mounted Police patrol at a busy Bondi Beach on Sunday. Picture: Getty Images

He said he would also pursue mandatory vaccinations for at-risk industries, including the mining sector, despite Mr Morrison on Friday opposing the blanket mandating of vaccines in all workplaces.

Under the four-stage reopening plan, extended hard lockdowns were expected to be phased out after the nation reached vaccine coverage of 70 and 80 per cent.

“Our preferred option is zero Covid, obviously, and that’s what we’ll attempt to do. When you get to 70, perhaps 80, if there is a lockdown it might be a lesser area rather than the entire metropolitan area. It might be a country town rather than the entire region,” Mr McGowan told Sky News. “We ­retain the right to put in place borders (restrictions). But some of the measures that are put in place might ease once we reach that level of vaccination.”

Mr Morrison revealed on Sunday that the Sydney outbreak and national Covid-19 crisis had influenced Poland’s decision to sell one million Pfizer vaccines to Australia.

The bulk of the Polish doses, which were due to begin arriving on Sunday night, will be sent to 12 local government areas in Sydney where Delta outbreaks continue to grow. The jabs will be used to ­inoculate all residents aged 20 to 39 who are considered “peak transmitters” of the Delta variant.

The Prime Minister pleaded with Sydney residents to “stay at home” and said vaccines would not end the NSW outbreak.

“Don’t go down to the beach for hours, don’t meet up with others walking in twos apart and catching up anyway. We all know what we’re talking about, OK? Don’t do it,” Mr Morrison said.

“Because too much is having to be endured through these lockdowns for them not to work.”

The Australian understands through national cabinet and private conversations, Mr Morrison had strongly urged the NSW government to impose a statewide lockdown to keep the virus out of Indigenous communities and combat soaring infection rates.

A new pop-up Covid-19 testing clinic in Newcastle, north of Sydney, on Sunday. Picture: Peter Lorimer.

He welcomed the harsher ­restrictions in NSW, saying they were required to protect the most “most vulnerable people in our country”.

With infections in western NSW rising, including in ­Walgett and Dubbo, which are home to Indigenous communities, Mr Morrison said “we have to prevent” the Delta variant moving into vulnerable areas.

“We’ve been seeing those case numbers rise in Sydney, in NSW each day, and that is terribly concerning. So together we’ve got to get those numbers coming down,” Mr Morrison said.

Across the country on Sunday, Victoria announced 25 community-acquired Covid-19 cases, leading Premier Daniel Andrews to flag an extension of the lockdown. The ACT reporting two new infections; Queensland recorded no new community infections.

While Ms Berejiklian said she would continue to reassess what restrictions could be modified in coming months as immunisation rates increased, she indicated it would be nothing close to what residents considered “living freely” until well into November.

“Living freely will not be upon us until we have lower case numbers and until we have 70-80 per cent double doses,” she said.

As Sydney residents entered their eighth week of lockdown, Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said the economy was experiencing as much as $1bn in losses every week, with business leaders pleading for an exit strategy for the state’s hospitality, hotels and tourism sectors.

“Each day of lockdown escalates the cost by hundreds of millions of dollars for business, the economy and our future resilience and robustness,” he said.

NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant said the next two to three weeks would be crucial in driving down infection rates and reiterated that vaccines were not “silver bullets”. “We are at a fork in the road and we have to decide what path we are going to choose. And the path I want is one where I see declining case numbers and increasing vaccination uptake,” Dr Chant said.

As NSW and Victorian authorities ramp up access to Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines, the number of Australians who have received at least one jab is expected to hit 50 per cent this week. Following a record Saturday, more than 26 per cent of eligible Australians are now fully vaccinated, with the federal government increasingly confident coverage will reach between 70 and 80 per cent by December.

Despite the gloom of at least another two months of heavily ­restricted trade, CommSec chief economist Craig James remained optimistic the nation would avoid slipping into recession.

Mr James predicted a 2.7 per cent slide in economic growth in the September quarter would be followed by growth of 1.9 per cent in the December quarter.

“It is quite remarkable that, when you have a look at the retail spending figures for the past 12 months, which was characterised by lockdowns and degrees of ­enforcement and mobility and the like, we had a record year in terms of retail spending,” Mr James said.

“It means we will come out the other side … and … we will rebound from this quite quickly.”

Negotiations with Polish officials began last month, with conversations between Mr Morrison and counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki crucial in Australia securing Pfizer doses ahead of other countries. The Morrison government is understood to be negotiating with other European nations to boost vaccine supply.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING: JOSEPH LAM