Berejiklian says vaccination milestones will be key to ending lockdown

Premier Gladys Berejiklian says Sydney can start to emerge from lockdown on August 28 if vaccination rates hit 50 per cent, signalling for the first time the proportion of people fully inoculated will determine how restrictions are eased not COVID case numbers.

Ms Berejiklian said having half of the state’s adults vaccinated would not “give us complete freedom” but it would trigger the easing of some restrictions. By Sunday, 19 per cent of NSW adults had been fully vaccinated.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian says reaching vaccination milestones will prompt the easing of restrictions.Credit: Edwina Pickles

The Premier is urging people to use the four-week extension to the lockdown, due to end on August 28, to get a jab, saying there was only a “three day wait” for appointments for an AstraZeneca shot in state vaccination hubs.

“If we increase the vaccination rates during August this gives us many more options for August 29,” she said.

Ms Berejiklian said an 80 per cent vaccination target- which national cabinet agreed on last Friday would mean “only highly targeted lockdowns” - would give “much greater freedom”.

“But we know that it is also incremental ... once we hit milestones, once you get to 50 per cent vaccination, 60 per cent, 70 per cent it obviously triggers more freedoms,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“The challenge for us is to get as many people vaccinated in August as possible so that by the time August 28 comes around, we have a number of options before us as to how we can ease restrictions.”

Ms Berejiklian said easing of restrictions in certain areas could be based on levels of vaccination.

The Premier said NSW was vaccinating about 500,000 people a week but that could be increased, particularly as more pharmacies start administrating shots and the government opens more hubs.

Ms Berejiklian has previously stressed the focus in Greater Sydney was to see the number of positive cases in the community reach close to zero, but on Sunday the Premier only referred to vaccine rates.

NSW recorded 239 new cases in the 24-hour reporting period, with 26 people in the community while infectious and 124 mystery cases. There have now been 3427 locally acquired cases since the outbreak began on June 16.

There are also 222 cases in hospital, with 54 people in intensive care, 25 of whom are ventilated.

Of those cases, 12 are residents of the Wyoming Nursing Home in Summer Hill, who have been transferred to hospital as a precaution. All residents at the home have been offered jabs, and nine of the 12 are fully vaccinated.

A staff member, who has received her first dose of vaccine, tested positive on July 27 and was asymptomatic.

Ms Berejiklian also defended the government’s decision to divert Pfizer vaccines from the Hunter region to year 12 school students in south-west and western Sydney and said they were for “only around 19,000 students”.

Year 12 students will return to face-to-face learning on August 16, with students from hot spots to be given one dose of Pfizer at a new hub at Qudos Bank Arena at Sydney Olympic Park.

“When you consider there are 8 million people in NSW, when you consider we have been able to stop the spread of the virus in our regions and other parts of Sydney ... it is important for us to give those year 12 students a chance to finish their exams and get rewarded,” Ms Berejiklian said.

The decision has angered Hunter residents, with state Newcastle MP Tim Crakanthorp saying it was “extremely disappointing” while federal Hunter MP Joel Fitzgibbon said “regional people deserve protection too”.

Mr Fitzgibbon later posted on Twitter, confirming he had secured an AstraZeneca jab on Sunday morning.

“Pfizer jab cancelled last night, first AZ jab this morning. If the government was forcing me there, it worked,” he tweeted, adding he would lobby on behalf of people who had missed out on their Pfizer appointment.

Meanwhile, NSW Labor leader Chris Minns called for the NSW government to release the health advice it was receiving.

“Let the people of Sydney understand what the government is grappling with. Let them see for themselves the data in which these decisions are being made,” Mr Minns said.

“So we can strengthen community acceptance and compliance with what everybody agrees are very difficult health orders, at the moment.”

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