Most people who spoke to Guardian Australia are still recovering from the impact of long lockdowns and do not want a return to restrictions. “Are you willing to justify risking the health of vulnerable people for that privilege?” ‘Utter confusion about what we should be doing’ “What’s the price that we are willing to pay in order for people to be able to go and have brunch? “Almost everyone has a pre-existing condition,” Cooper says. Photograph: Flavio Brancaleone/EPAĪlso invalidating is the implication, from some public health messaging and public responses to death announcements, that a disease is less devastating if most of its victims are people who have pre-existing conditions. Sign notifying customers that rapid antigen test (RAT) kits are sold out. “We should absolutely acknowledge that was bad and a lot of people suffered, but a lot of people are also alive now because of it,” she says. Many others say they have chosen to go back into something resembling lockdown until their children can be vaccinated or until the outbreak peaks.Ĭooper says she felt significantly safer when Melbourne was in lockdown and finds the argument that people should “get over” their concern about a global pandemic “incredibly invalidating”. Many like Cooper have gone into self-isolation to protect themselves or a vulnerable loved one. Guardian Australia spoke to more than 40 people about how they were feeling at the start of the third year of the pandemic. I would not be fine – I had my booster shot last week and was severely unwell for five days. “It is very strange to watch the rest of the world say ‘we will go out and it will be fine and we will get sick and it will be fine’. She went into self-isolation two weeks ago. On Saturday, New Zealand vaccinated more than 2.5 percent of its people as part of a government-led mass vaccination drive.Cooper is disabled and immunocompromised. Neighbouring New Zealand, which is also learning to live with COVID-19 by accelerating inoculations, reported 51 new cases on Sunday, 47 of them in the largest city Auckland, which has been in a lockdown since mid-August. Neighbouring New South Wales, which emerged last week from a 100-day lockdown, reported 301 cases and 10 deaths.Įighty percent of the state’s people have been fully vaccinated. Victoria on Sunday recorded 1,838 new coronavirus cases and seven deaths. The government is also in discussions with Singapore about reopening travel between the two countries for the fully vaccinated.ĭespite a rise in cases in recent months, Australia’s coronavirus numbers are low compared with many other developed countries, with just over 143,000 cases and 1,530 deaths. More easing, including the reopening of many retailers, will come once 80 percent of eligible Victorians are fully vaccinated – estimated by November 5 at the latest.Īustralia’s health officials also said on Sunday that quarantine-free travel from New Zealand’s South Island, where there is no outbreak, will resume on Wednesday. There will be no travel limits within metropolitan Melbourne, the premier said, though residents of the city will not be able to travel outside the city without permission. Most outdoor venues will be open to up to 50 people, subject to density limits, while indoor venues, including cafes and restaurants will be able to open to 20 people, also subject to density limits. Gatherings outside will be limited to 15 people. In Victoria, more than 65 percent of people over the age of 16 have had a second dose of a vaccine while 89 percent have had at least one dose.Īndrews said with the lifting of the stay at home order, people will be allowed to have 10 visitors at their homes each day. “We are instead locking people out who have not got vaccinated to protect themselves and protect everybody else.”Īs of the weekend, about 68 percent of eligible Australians have been fully inoculated. “We’re not locking people down any more across the board,” said Andrews. The new strategy makes lockdowns highly unlikely once 80 percent of the population is fully vaccinated. Australia, once a champion of a COVID-zero strategy of managing the pandemic, has been moving towards living with the virus through extensive vaccinations, as the Delta variant has proven too transmissible to suppress.
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