NSW and Victoria go head-to-head in race to freedom
Life in Australia’s two biggest states is set to return to normal in weeks in a $1bn-a-week economic boost.
Life in Australia’s two biggest states is set to virtually return to normal in weeks with Dan Andrews’ pledge to dump most restrictions on November 24 expected to be matched or bettered by the NSW government.
In a move that will inject $1bn a week into the national economy, the Victorian Premier on Sunday vowed to abolish almost all of the draconian restrictions imposed on millions, once the state hits the 90 per cent double vaccination target in four weeks.
The pledge would mean virus-riddled Victoria would open up a week ahead of NSW, according to the current vaccination timetable, but The Australian understands NSW is also poised to abolish most restrictions on November 24 or earlier, having previously set December 1 as the date for tearing down the barriers.
An emphatic Mr Andrews on Sunday said capacity, density and gathering limits would be abolished in a month, compulsory mask use dramatically wound back to mainly indoor settings and domestic travel thrown open.
Predicting 80,000 at the Boxing Day cricket Test, Mr Andrews said double vaccination requirements would remain crucial across most settings, as well as announcing that from Friday intrastate travel would be allowed for the first time in months, once the 80 per cent double vaccination milestone was reached.
Significant further easing of restrictions will lock-in on Friday, with most indoor settings including pubs, restaurants and gyms subject to no caps within a one person per four square limit.
Mr Andrews said the demand from the Victorian government that people get double vaccinated was being met, paving the way for the economy to be opened up.
“We made a deal with the Victorian community – we asked them to get vaccinated and promised that when they did, we would open up and begin (to) live alongside the virus,” he said.
With Victoria and NSW set to open up, the core difference will be that Victoria has stubbornly high infection rates.
Meanwhile, the vaccination program is becoming a stunning success in NSW, with fewer than 300 cases reported up to Saturday night compared with Victoria’s 1935 new cases.
While December 1 had previously been pegged as the date by which the 90 per cent target would be reached in NSW, the state is on track to reach that mark well before then.
As of Sunday, 93 per cent of people aged 16 and over in NSW had received a first dose and 84.8 per cent were fully vaccinated, with the trend expected to continue in coming weeks.
NSW had a head start on Victoria, with its severe Delta outbreak starting earlier and hundreds of thousands of urgent extra doses of vaccine pumped into NSW.
Dominic Perrottet, the freshly minted NSW Premier, is part of a government that has prided itself on leading the nation in dumping lockdown rules, with the Premier having already eased a raft of restrictions ahead of time, including most recently the scrapping of both hotel and home quarantine when returning travellers start flying into the state from November 1. A spokesman for Mr Perrottet said on Sunday that NSW was on track to reach 90 per cent fully vaccinated across the state “very soon”, adding: “We have already updated the road map with eased restrictions for fully vaccinated people where we were confident we could do so safely.
“We have continued to monitor vaccination and hospitalisation rates and, wherever safe to do so, will further update the road map for the fully vaccinated.
“Our aim remains returning the freedoms and the life we all love as safely and quickly as possible.”
Melbourne-based milliner Natalie Bikicki said customers had shopped for her bespoke fascinators online and via Instagram during the pandemic, but a return to in-person shopping would boost her bottom line.
“Retail opening is a really big deal,” she said. “People like touching things, they like seeing the immediate reaction of ‘yes, this works’. People are going to get quite hedonistic when they get back into shops. I think there will be a bit of a buying spree.”
Ms Bikicki’s handmade pieces are mostly worn with race wear and are stocked at boutique Melbourne label Laine, located in Port Melbourne just south of the city, as well as in Myer in the city.
She said the reopening of bricks and mortar stores on Friday was a big deal, and the timing could not be better with a crowd of up to 10,000 allowed to attend the Melbourne Cup on November 2.
The pledge by Victoria and the expected move by NSW will intensify pressure on other key states to open up once their populations are sufficiently vaccinated.
The ACT is leading the nation, according to the latest federal government figures breakdown released on Saturday, with 95 per cent of the territory’s 16-plus population single jabbed and 86.2 per cent fully vaccinated, followed closely by NSW.
Victoria had 90.2 per cent single dosed and 73.1 per cent fully vaccinated, Tasmania 86.6 per cent single dosed and 71.6 per cent double jabbed, while Queensland, South Australia, the Northern Territory and Western Australia are all yet to reach 80 per cent on first doses and 70 per cent on second doses.
Covid-19 task force commander Lieutenant General John Frewen said there was enough vaccine to be spread around the Australian community.
The rollout of booster shots could be as early as November 8, with priority given to aged care, disability care and frontline health workers, deputy chief medical officer Michael Kidd said.
Mr Andrews blamed the lengthy lockdowns on the lack of vaccines, with Melbourne the most locked down city in the world after the second wave closed the city for 112 gruelling days in 2020.
“We had lockdowns, long lockdowns, because we didn’t have a vaccine,” he said.
“We got the vaccine, people have gone and got their first and second dose in record time and in record numbers. Now we can do really special things.’’
Under the Victorian changes, there is a heavy emphasis on people still being double vaccinated.
Under the 80 per cent changes, hundreds will be allowed to attend weddings, funerals and religious gatherings if people are fully vaccinated. If not, caps of 30 will apply.
“Two doses, or you’re not getting in,” Mr Andrews said. “Two doses or you’re not going to work.”
Additional reporting: Angelica Snowden
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