NSW’s COVID outbreak has gotten out of control. A record high 825 local COVID cases were reported on Saturday and a further 830 on Sunday, marking the nation’s highest daily numbers since the pandemic began in March last year:
Cases still growing out of control.
NSW’s recorded active local cases have now hit 10,400 – dwarfing the 7,880 peak reached by Victoria in August last year:
By far Australia’s worst COVID outbreak.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian let her frustrations be known over the weekend, blaming Western Sydney’s migrant-heavy community for the state’s worsening COVID numbers:
Gladys Berejiklian lost patience with the suburbs that have refused to bow to her wishes.
The 9pm-to-5am curfew on 12 council areas in south-western and western Sydney imposed by the NSW Premier on Friday is a born-of-desperation tactic to stop the movement of, in the words of Police Commissioner Mick Fuller, young men who are “very difficult to manage” from the suburbs responsible for 85 per cent of the state’s cases…
“They’re not complying,” he said.
Three-and-a-half thousand fines this week failed as a deterrent…
As everyone in Sydney knows, the city’s west and south-west are the suburbs of immigrants… Unless Berejiklian can stop them mixing with families, friends and workmates, Australia faces rolling lockdowns for the rest of the year. Just like Sydney, which is out until at least September 30.
On Saturday, a frustrated reporter questioned the premier on why she has imposed tougher restrictions on Western Sydney only:
“Every day (we are) turning to you as the leader of the state for some level of hope (but) the numbers are going up. You announced tougher restrictions on the southwestern part of city yesterday. If we are all in this together, why isn’t this a blanket rule across the state to reduce mobility?”.
Gladys Berejiklian failed to answer the question, instead babbling on about vaccination rates.
My view is that it is wrong to segregate Sydney and impose harsher restrictions on the city’s poorer Western Sydney residents. Doing so will not only be less effective but also breed anger and mistrust among the community, increasing the likelihood of more people shunning the rules and spreading the virus.
Remember too that this outbreak was seeded in the East by a Bondi limousine driver who transported international flight crews.
The virus then spread quickly through Bondi Junction Shopping Centre, which the limo driver visited, to sub-clusters linked to a Bondi cafe and hair salon at Double Bay. Then it spread across the city into broader NSW.
Thus, to allow the ‘elites in the east’ greater freedoms than the poorer residents suffering in Sydney’s west gives the strong impression that Sydney is ‘not all in it together’ and will make gaining compliance much more difficult.
