‘Hours of work’: Brad Hazzard defends decision to end daily Covid updates

After holding 500 press conferences since the pandemic began, the NSW Health Minister faced a grilling over the decision to call them off.

“Have no fear, we will be here.”

That was the message from NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard as he faced questions on Saturday over why state leaders would no longer be fronting daily Covid press conferences from tomorrow.

Mr Hazzard defended the widely criticised decision, announced by Premier Gladys Berejiklian yesterday, with the Health Minister insisting the 11am media event took up hours of expert time needed to deal with the crisis.

He said he had personally attended some 500 press conferences since the beginning of the pandemic.

“I think getting the balance right, making sure we get the information out community is critical but we were doing that before,” he said.

“You think it is just for one hour or whatever it is that you walk in here, but in fact there is the preparation for the morning.”

“Doctor (Jeremy) McNulty is here very early getting ready, so is Dr (Kerry) Chant and the others. There is a massive team of people getting ready, drawing in all the information, we are here probably three or four hours beforehand.”

“That time is taken out from the time we need to do the things you want us to do.”

Admitting she“didn‘t know how this would be received”, Ms Berejiklian on Friday said “intermittent” press conferences would be more appropriate.

“I will turn up when I need to but to expect the leader of the government indefinitely to do this every day means that I am not doing my job properly,” she said.

Critics say the move away from the daily press event — and regular scrutiny — is premature before the state hits peak cases, expected next month. NSW today recorded 1,599 new infections and eight deaths, including a man in his 30s who died at home in Sydney’s south west.

“We are getting up into higher numbers and we need to have the time to bring our focus with clear minds as to what we need to do and that applies with everybody working in this building,” Mr Hazzard said.

The move comes after a shift away from prioritising the announcement of daily case numbers and deaths towards vaccination rates and the advice of experts on living with Covid.

The state hit 77.3 per cent first-dose vaccination on Saturday, and 44.5 per cent fully vaccinated.