In Australia, the zero Govt strategy stumbles in the face of delta variation

⁇ At 4:15 pm, your turn, go one after the other and respect the physical distance activities! A civil servant yells at a large fluorescent orange waist, pointing to the entrance to the Sydney Olympic Park, one of the mass vaccination centers established by the state of New South Wales. Immediately, this Thursday, August 5, dozens of people left. After a few minutes, everyone gets a text message with the vaccine post number. “They don’t have much, but at least they are well organized », This and Smiling Max, relieved to have completed his vaccination course in the forties.

As of Tuesday, August 10, only 23.09% of Australians had received two injections of the Covit-19 vaccine, and only 44.7% had received one. Very low rates put the island-continent behind the pack of developed countries as a result of distribution problems and in the short term, control measures will affect the majority of the population. On June 16 the Delta variant was called for antibodies.

Sydney, the most affected city in Australia after more than six weeks in prison, has yet to succeed in tidal waves, with Tuesday being the highest number ever recorded in the state of 356 new cases across News-South Wales. The challenge is that the local government now plans to “live” with the virus, contrary to the “zero govt” policy, which has helped the country to register less than 1,000 deaths since the outbreak. This possible rejection is not yet official, but it has already been condemned by federal officials and leaders of other states and territories who did not plan to cross this milestone before 70% of the population over the age of 16. Vaccinated

Hardened control measures

“The trend towards zero is currently our national approach”, On August 6, Australian Health Director-General Paul Kelly, like other officials in the country, expects New South Wales to take more concerted action to stem the outbreak. “We need a circuit breaker”, The professor underlined. Among the ways considered by epidemiologists: curfew order, obligation to wear a mask outside the city or to reduce the permitted travel perimeter currently extended to 10 kilometers. The options were dropped on June 26 by the local government, which decided to take full control of its capital. First after May 2020.

You should read 60.56% of this article. The rest is for subscribers only.