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| THE THREE AMIGOS: Premier Berejiklian (left) Prime Minister Morrison (middle) & Deputy Premier Barilaro (right), Architects of the 2021 NSW Delta Variant Outbreak IMAGE: The Northern Leader, 16.010.2019 |
By the last day of 2020 in News South Wales there were 4,739 recorded COVID-19 infections for that year and only 2,043 (or 43.11%) of these were due to community transmission. Total deaths with a COVID-19 diagnosis stood at 56 people.
However, as a state population we had cause to be cautiously optimistic.
We had weathered two ‘waves’ of the global pandemic – the initial one in March-April when the original SARS-CoV-2 virus began to spread and total cases passed the 3,000 mark and then later in June-September when the number of people falling ill began to climb again until the total reached 4,038 individuals.
Compared to other regions around the world infection numbers and the death toll was relatively low in proportion to the NSW population.
And the federal government had promised Australia a national vaccination program in early 2021 to be completed within six to eight months.
News South Wales is now in the last quarter of 2021.
The national vaccination program is still nowhere near complete – it is plagued by vaccine shortages, poor distribution planning and the Morrison Government's outright mismanagement. Lengthy wait time for vaccination appointments are still being experienced and eligibility for vaccination is problematic given children have been excluded for much of the roll out to date.
As of 9 September 2021 only est. 33% of the total population of 25.8 million men, women & children in Australia have been fully vaccinated. In New South Wales that percentage is still well below a safe level at an est. 42.11% fully vaccinated.
The highly infectious NSW Delta Variant Outbreak began on 16 June 2021 and, despite being initially told by members of the Berejiklian Government that this variant form was unlikely to make people as sick as the original SARS-CoV-2 strain, it was not long before public hospitals admissions began to steadily climb.
From 16 June to 9 September 2021 the Delta Variant has infected via community transmission 34,804 men, women and children in New South Wales and 162 of these people were dead.
Those particular deaths represent 74.31% of all COVID-19 related deaths in NSW since the SARS-CoV-2 virus first entered the state in January 2020.
Public hospitals have a combined total of over 1,000 COVID-19 inpatients occupying hospital beds on every day now and by 9 September the total number currently in intensive care units reached 205 very ill individuals.
The Berejiklian Government has been repeatedly warning the general public that we are going to see the rise in infection, hospitalization & deaths continue during September and October and, that the date or month the NSW Delta Variant Outbreak will peak is still uncertain.
Despite this scenario, on 10 September 2021 NSW Premier & Liberal MP for Willoughby Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced that the 11am daily government COVID-19 update press conference would cease from Monday 13 September 2021. Being replaced by a NSW Health video giving daily updates, on which the Premier & some of her Cabinet Ministers may appear from time to time.
The reason given for her personal absence from any future structured daily television appearance concerning the COVID-19 pandemic is that these daily press conferences prevent her "doing my job properly”.
This walk away from public scrutiny and accountability for the decisions made by the premier and her ministers is worrying.
Coming as it does on the heels of the removal of a section of the NSW Health daily online media releases after 26 August 2021 (which contained the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases who had been infectious in the community and for how long), the cessation of publication of a full list of "venues of concern" known to have been frequented by infectious individuals, combined with an obvious reluctance to mention in front of television cameras the total number of fully vaccinated NSW residents who have later contracted COVID-19 and the total deaths to date in this cohort.
That a gradual contraction of the range of statistics now included in NSW Health's daily media releases is being considered has been hinted at by the Premier in recent days and, it is possible that a daily confirmed case count will disappear by the end of the year - even though it is likely epidemic levels of confirmed cases are still being recorded each day.
Such a contraction of easily accessible pandemic information would not be for the benefit of the general public. Rather a muting of information on the status of the NSW Delta Variant Outbreak would be more likely to benefit the Morrison Government, as its MPs and senators gear up for the next federal election.
This effort to move the NSW Government behind the veil and answerable to no-one also began as the Berejiklian Government commenced a staged opening up of regional New South Wales, ahead of that 70% fully vaccinated target for those between 15 years of age and over 90 years which triggers a statewide opening that is optimistically pencilled into industry diaries for sometime in October-November this year.
In New South Wales this trigger will apparently be used independently of where other states or the national average vaccinated percentage is with regard to the 70% fully vaccinated target.
One cannot avoid a suspicion that Berejiklian may have gone into 'hiding' because she has not been quite truthful with the general public about the road this Delta Variant is expected to travel and at what speed.
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"All of us have to start accepting that we need to live with Covid. Because Covid will be around for three or four years and it’s not practical to do everything the same [ie continue to suppress the disease]…..we have to make sure that as a government we normalise the way we do things every day…..But we also have to accept, that we all of us have to start thinking about what living with Covid really means…" [NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian at the 11am daily government COVID-19 update press conference on 10 September 2021]
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“I want to welcome the New South Wales plan to reopen,” he said on Thursday. “This plan keeps the deal, keeps the faith with the people of Australia and the people of New South Wales, set out in the national plan.” [Australian Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook in NSW, Scott Morrison on 9 September 2021 - as quoted by columnist Laura Tingle in the Financial Review, 11 September 2021]
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A new normal Friday morning in New South Wales “living with Covid”…..
DAY 87: NSW Health data showed that, as of 8pm Friday 10 September 2021, the number of locally acquired COVID-19 infections since the 16 June beginning of the Delta Variant Outbreak in NSW now totals 36,374 people - inclusive of 170 deaths. There are currently 1,164 COVID-19 cases admitted to hospital, with 221 people in intensive care, 74 of whom require ventilation.
NSW recorded 1,599 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 up to 8pm.
From January 2020 to 10 September 2021 the cumulative total of COVID-19 infections from all sources had reached 42,000 cases.
The deaths up to Day 87 of the NSW Delta Variant Outbreak represent 75.22% of all NSW deaths with a COVID-19 diagnosis since the pandemic first entered Australia and the state in January 2020.
According to NSW Health a cumulative total of 1,037,036 NSW residents had been fully vaccinated by 8pm on 10 September 2021 out of an est. state population (ABS Dec 2020) of 8,172,500 men, women and children. That figure reveals that only est. 12.68% of the entire NSW population was fully vaccinated. *It should be noted that a different figure and percentage might be reached using the Australian Government’s ADF managed Operation COVID Shield data for the same period.
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