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NSW Health Chief Kerry Chant answered questions about the lockdown response from NSW, which has failed to curb the state’s increase in cases despite two weeks of restrictions.
Images of Sydneysiders enjoying the sunshine last weekend suggested the state capital had become complicit in the spread of the Delta strain. According to NSW Deputy Police Commissioner Gary Worboys, 106 offense notices were handed out by NSW Police for a number of rallies across town overnight.
Despite the clear indifference shown by some sections of the community, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian praised the Sydneysiders for adhering to the government’s strict restrictions, which included a controversial move to increase the police presence in southwest Sydney .
However, figures released on Sunday suggest the Sydney lockdown is not working as expected. So why don’t home support measures reduce transmission?
Because 50 of Sunday’s 77 cases were contracted in the same focus as a positive case and not galloping.
Dr Chant said family transmission was behind the current number of cases, confirming that authorities “are still identifying unrecognized cases within households in southwest Sydney”. On this information, Ms Berejiklian admitted that she would be “shocked” to see fewer than 100 new cases arriving on Monday morning.
“I think it’s going to take several days to turn around. And to some extent we are trying. The numbers could actually increase because we step up testing to get ahead of the transmission curve, â€Dr Chant said of domestic transmission on Sunday.
“This is the general impact of containment. What you’re trying to do is reduce the mobility of the population as a whole, reduce the opportunities for person-to-person interactions, and then slow the spread of the disease more widely. What we are seeing in South West Sydney is really why this has been magnified, due to the close household interactions. “
NSW Health reported that 48,754 tests were performed in the past 24 hours, at a positive rate of about 0.15%.
The situation looks dire for anyone relying on the lifting of foreclosure restrictions for a living.
The prime minister declined to answer questions about Friday’s lockdown deadline, strongly hinting that the restrictions would stay in place much longer than the government currently has on paper.
As if canine squads, mounted units and an enhanced police presence weren’t enough, Melbourne-based epidemiologist Tony Blakely, who is regularly quoted in Australian media, suggested that NSW call in the military to help. ensure that the state respects lockdown restrictions.
And that is not to mention the obvious economic and social impact of the prolonged blockages on the community.
The widespread impact of confinements
At the onset of the pandemic, world leaders participated in a chaotic Covid merry-go-round, collating data from each other’s viral responses and citing it as relevant evidence for their own decision-making.
Initially, a prolonged lockdown appeared to be the most effective way to eradicate the virus, which became the biggest problem Australians faced from March 2020. A 24-hour news cycle, the interest of the Rabid readers and politicians’ undeniable appetite for screen time have kept Covid-19 at the forefront of public consciousness.
18 months later, with just 910 coronavirus deaths recorded, an argument could still be made for the success of the Australian lockdowns. Our country has not been hit as hard as the rest of the world in terms of the direct impact of airborne disease.
However, the full list of long-term implications is not yet known.
Speaking on ABC Insiders, Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese said he received a call from a local business owner, who was in tears that he had to lay off staff due to lack of city ​​lockdown activity.
For some, three weeks is enough for a carefully built business to find itself in dire straits. With the state prime minister unwilling to provide concrete information on how long the current lockdown period is, it looks certain that thousands of people across the state will be stuck in financial limbo.
And when the time comes, at the whim of a few policymakers, for these businesses, casual workers and entrepreneurs to attempt to rebuild themselves from their losses, they will be told to “take things in hand” and to continue to trust their politicians to work for them.
A thought should also be spared for those who have actually taken the initiative to get the vaccine, and are still being forced to stay home and bleed their savings.
What’s more, experts have already started to detect worrying mental health trends caused by the blockages.
As a study by Monash University shows, a whopping 1 in 10 respondents admitted to considering suicide while staying at home for 112 days in Victoria in mid-2020, which left the center of Melbourne artists, live event coordinators and venues among others hanging from the edge of a cliff.
The study found that young adults, unpaid caregivers, people with disabilities, and people with diagnosed psychiatric or sleep disorders are at increased risk for unwanted mental health symptoms.
Ian Hickie of the Brain and Mind Institute at the University of Sydney said the data matched recent studies on the mental health of young Australians. Professor Hickie said the obvious side effects of the prolonged lockdowns are undeniable although they are crucial in Australia’s fight against the global pandemic.
“Unfortunately, this reflects the fact that although we have been spared the worst of the health crisis in Australia, the social and economic impacts have been profound, and they are continuing, they are not limited to the lockdown period,†he said. he said via the ABC.
“Most of the evidence we have, especially for young people, is that these rates were increasing before Covid. They then increased dramatically during the first Covid lockdown and then thereafter in terms of emergency room presentations and really serious self-harm or suicide attempts. “
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