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. At very low rates, as a result of distribution problems, the island-continent lags behind the pack of developed countries and in the short term, it will not enable control measures that 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 not yet succeeded in curbing the 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 denounced by leaders and federal officials in other states and regions who do not plan to cross this milestone, with at least 70% of the population being vaccinated 16 years ago.

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 tide. “We need a circuit breaker”, The professor underlined. Among the ways considered by epidemiologists: curfew order, compulsory wearing of masks outside the city or reduction of the permitted travel perimeter currently extended to 10 km. On June 26 the options were set aside by the local government, which had already struggled to take full control of its capital. First after May 2020.

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