Frontline medical staff not happy with Morrison Government's lack of thought or preparation behind the national plan to re-open Australia

 

Nurses union the ANMF calls on Australian Prime Minister Morrison to address critical concerns before triggering national plan to re-open Australia

ANMF Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation Journal, 1 September 2021:

The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) has written to Prime Minister Scott Morrison to outline its significant concerns regarding the government’s national plan to re-open Australia and transition the country’s pandemic response based on the Doherty Institute’s COVID-19 modelling and the Commonwealth Department of Treasury’s economic analysis.

In the letter, the union requests that more detailed modelling and analysis be undertaken and considered by National Cabinet before it takes any further steps to re-open the country.

“As you are aware, the nursing and midwifery workforces, as the largest and best distributed components of the health workforce, are fundamental to ensuring that the Australian community remains safe and healthy both during COVID outbreaks and as we seek to gradually move the nation beyond the current ‘suppression phase’ of the COVID-19 response,” ANMF Federal Secretary Annie Butler wrote.

“This means that the impacts of re-opening and transitioning the country’s national COVID-19 response prematurely without adequate planning or sufficient resourcing will disproportionately affect nurses and midwives and their capacity for ongoing delivery of quality care.”

Ms Butler argued the Doherty modelling, which currently underpins the government’s proposed re-opening plan, fails to take into account all the factors affecting this capacity.

Specifically, the ANMF has called on the government to consider the following factors before re-opening:

1. Current health system demand capacity, including expansion capacity, both critical care and general, and management of non COVID health demand

2. Assessment of safe vaccination targets, which include the entire population, not just those currently eligible

3. Vaccination rates needed for vulnerable populations, including those aged over 70 and other high-risk groups

4. Management of anticipated vaccination rollout channels for boosters, once recommended

5. The impact of the Delta and future variants, including on children, particularly in the context of uncontrolled community transmission, as is currently occurring in NSW

6. How the test-trace-isolate-quarantine TTIQ workforce will be fully resourced and maintained without impacting the nursing and midwifery workforces

7. How to ensure all communities across Australia will have equal access to safe healthcare as we progress through the pandemic

Like all Australians, Ms Butler said the ANMF was keen to transition the country’s COVID-19 response from one of strict virus suppression to more relaxed restrictions. However, it cannot happen without first addressing critical concerns, she warned.

“We cannot overstate the importance of ensuring that we do not make this transition until we can guarantee that vaccination rates and appropriate public health measures are sufficient to allow the health and aged care systems and their workforces to be able to continue to deliver best practice care to all those requiring it.”

AMA calls for stronger quarantine model – a need to move away from temporary measures and introduce permanent quarantine solutions

Australian Medical Association, 2 September 2021:

The AMA has called for an urgent stocktake of potential quarantine sites around Australia in a submission to the Chair of National Review of Hotel Quarantine, Ms Jane Halton AO PSM. Ms Halton invited the AMA to provide this submission as part of her further review into Australia’s quarantine arrangements.

Australia’s current hotel quarantine has resulted in over 30 breaches, one of which has led to the third wave of infections. Australia needs to move away from this temporary measure and introduce permanent quarantine solutions.

The AMA has welcomed the announcement of the three quarantine facilities announced in recent weeks, however the facilities will take months to complete. The AMA is also concerned about the lack of engagement with the local medical communities in the vicinity of these facilities.

The submission also calls for further examination of the options for expanding home quarantine for fully vaccinated people arriving from lower risk locations. This would alleviate some of the burden on quarantine facilities.

AMA President Dr Omar Khorshid will meet with Ms Halton in the coming weeks to further detail the AMA’s priorities in ensuring Australia has a robust quarantine regime. Underpinning the AMA’s position are two goals: To prevent COVID-19 originating overseas from spreading through Australia, and to ensure that Australians can continue to return here from overseas, ideally in increased numbers.

National Cabinet needs to look at the whole Australian hospital system, not just ICU beds

Doorstop interview, 2 September 2021:

DR OMAR KHORSHID: The AMA is today calling on National Cabinet to look at the capacity of our hospital system, not just ICU beds, but our whole hospital system, to make sure that once we open up, we don’t see a disastrous reduction in the care available to Australians who are sick simply as a result of increase in the risk of COVID in the community from opening up. And of the hospitals having to pivot towards treating COVID without treating all those other conditions that people currently present with.

The reality in public hospitals in Australia right now is that they are full, they are always full, and there are ambulances parked outside, too many of them as we speak, simply because the hospitals don't have the capacity to look after the healthcare needs of Australians. That's before COVID. And we know that as soon as COVID comes into the community, hospitals will have to stop doing elective surgery. They will have to turn their ICUs into COVID ICUs. And that means people not being able to access lifesaving cancer surgery, lifesaving heart surgery, because the ICUs will have very sick COVID patients to look after, patients who stay in the ICUs for weeks and weeks.

Now, we are not worried that our system will fail to look after COVID patients. We think the planning has been done, but we are worried about Australians who get heart attacks, who need surgery, who have a sore hip, who are going to miss out on care if we don't get the planning right. Our hospitals are starting from a position of being completely overloaded, and adding more to that load is only going to make things worse. So we're asking National Cabinet to take that into account with their planning. Is it right to open up at 70 or 80 percent if the hospitals are going to predictably fail within weeks? Which will, of course, send us straight back into lockdowns, which would be extremely disappointing for all Australians or is there a better way to plan to use our system, to make sure that the resources that we do have, limited as they are, can be best pointed towards the most efficient care possible?

Now, we're asking for planning not just around ICU beds, but around all the processes, the staffing, how we deal with COVID in hospitals, how we run our primary healthcare sector, so that we've got the best chance that when Australia does open up to the rest of the world, when we do open up our interstate borders, that we have a healthcare system available to everybody who needs it. It’s a pretty simple ask, but it's a complex task. And we believe that we must use the available weeks and months that we have, to get that planning done so that the healthcare system doesn't become the handbrake on Australia's economy and our ability to open up…...

The COVID-19 pandemic and Delta Variant outbreak reveal that the Morrison and Berejiklian governments policy responses with regard to vulnerable populations appear to come from Australia's 18th Century colonial past rather than the 21st Century

 

The Guardian, 30 August 2021:

The federal government was warned 18 months ago of the urgent need to protect the Covid-hit town of Wilcannia, leaked correspondence seen by Guardian Australia shows, with an Aboriginal health service pleading for immediate help at the time to prevent an outbreak.

The Maari Ma Aboriginal health corporation wrote to the Indigenous Australians minister, Ken Wyatt, in March 2020, outlining “grave fears” for the far western New South Wales town if Covid were to spread to the vulnerable population there.

“Warnings from around the world are clear: the earlier we prepare and act, the better the outcomes will be. We cannot wait until the first case turns up in the community, or worse, the first hospital case presents,” the letter said.

“Basic mathematics says that by the time our first hospital patient presents, around 100 cases will already exist in the community, and this is based on best case modelling.”

The health service says its warnings appear to have been ignored, with no “tangible plan” put in place.

As of Monday, Wilcannia had recorded 69 coronavirus cases in a population of 720, the highest transmission rate in NSW.

A second letter from the health service, also seen by the Guardian, was sent last week to Scott Morrison, calling on him to take control of the “unfolding humanitarian crisis” in Wilcannia.

It said contrary to assurances by Gladys Berejiklian that the situation was under control, it was in fact “chaotic, and the mistakes and problems are mounting”.

“We do our work quietly, and try to fly under the radar of media and public attention as much as possible,” the letter to the prime minister said. “We cannot, however, sit quietly while the catastrophe in the Far West, and western NSW more broadly, continues to unfold.”

The second letter was copied to the NSW premier and the federal health minister, Greg Hunt..

The remote town of Wilcannia has been ravaged by the Covid outbreak in NSW.
Photograph: Chris Graham/New Matilda

.....Maari Ma has confirmed the contents of the letter, and that it was sent in March last year. Friday’s letter to the prime minister was also copied to several other state and federal politicians.

In that second letter, Maari Ma laid out its frustrations that its warnings to the federal government had been ignored. It said it had also written to Berejiklian last year.

“Disappointingly, no tangible plan was in place prior to this outbreak that could have been easily implemented. As a result, we’ve been playing catch up from day one,” it said.

“Our systems and services are ill-prepared, actions are too slow to be implemented, our responses have been sub standard, existing resources and expertise is not sufficient, new resources and expertise (for example the Army and Ausmat) are not being used to their full potential.”

Read the full article here.

March 2020 Maari Ma Health Aboriginal Corporation letter to the Australian Minister for Indigenous Australians & Liberal MP for Hasluck Ken Wyatt.

Maari Ma Health Aboriginal Corporation letter addressed to the Minister for Indigenous Australians, Hon Ken... by clarencegirl on Scribd

As of last Tuesday, it was reported that the predominately Aboriginal resident population of Wilcannia township in the Far West Local Health District had recorded 73 locally acquired COVID-19 cases in a population of 720, the highest transmission rate in NSW.

According to The Guardian on 31 August 2021:

The peak group representing all Aboriginal health services in NSW said both governments’ response to the Covid outbreak in the west of NSW “is becoming a joke”.

Aboriginal health groups met with the head of the federal government’s Covid vaccination program Lt Gen John Frewen on Monday afternoon to discuss a national Indigenous vaccine strategy, but the NSW Aboriginal health and medical research council was surprised there was not already a strategy in place.

Closer to home.......

In a media release on 31 August 2021, the Northern NSW Local Health District advised:

NSW Health is investigating whether there are any potential venues of concern in Northern NSW after a person tested positive to COVID-19 several days after visiting the Casino area.

This person is not a resident of Northern NSW Local Health District and is no longer in the area.

At this stage, NSW Health can confirm the case was infectious in the community on Saturday 21 August, and investigations are continuing.

NSW Health will announce any close contact locations if and when they are determined.

As a precautionary measure, a mobile testing clinic is being set up at Muli Muli Aboriginal community on Wednesday 1 September. People in this community are urged to come forward for testing if they have symptoms of COVID-19 or are concerned they may have come into contact with the case.

When hubris, arrogance & an unwillingness to face their mistakes caused members of the NSW Berejiklian Government to topple the state into a plague pit

When NSW Chief Medical Officer Dr. Kerry Chant appeared before an Upper House Standing Committee inquiring into the NSW Government’s Management of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Tuesday 10 August 2021, she did so in company with Liberal MLA for Wakehurst & NSW Minister for Health and Medical Research Brad Hazzard.

It was noticeable from the start of their joint appearance before the Inquiry that Hazzard was hostile to the existence of this particular inquiry and suspicious of certain members of the 8-member Committee.

"The first speaker said this was not in some sort of—gotcha moment. And all you are trying to do is carry-on like a—"

"...you are just asking questions which are just aimed at just having a go."

"I actually thought it [giving evidence] was a ridiculous proposition..." [Brad Hazzard, NSW Minister for Health and Medical Research, 10 August 2021]

Equally, it was evident that Hazzard also intended to constrain the questioning of and evidence given by Dr. Chant.

He reminded the Chair and Dr. Chant that she was unable to speak to the Inquiry as to the nature/content of discussions held during crisis committee meetings or produce copies of correspondence, reports or other written advice that Dr. Chant had given to this committee because the crisis committee was a committee within Cabinet.

Nevertheless Dr. Chant did reveal that, 4 days after the NSW Delta Variant Outbreak began, a birthday party at West Hoxton attended by around 30 people was underway and, although in coming days 24 of the 30 guests were diagnosed as infected with COVID-19, it was felt that infection spread had been contained early.

However, although the party was broken up by NSW Police and everyone was sent into home isolation by NSW Health, the containment door was never really locked and NSW Health failed to notice. Or if it did notice, failed to realise the full public health implications of a highly infectious new variant which might not act like the original virus or other known variants.

It appears that the public health response to this super spreader birthday party was the originating error which undid whatever effective infection containment had been achieved in the first few weeks of the Delta Variant Outbreak, because this particular infection focal point began cascading the virus through south-west Sydney.

Becoming a tipping point to a growing infection rate, until the outbreak could not be contained within Greater Sydney and began to infect regional and rural New South Wales.

Cabinet crisis committee members might have received the first hint of a south-west Sydney containment issue by 29 June 2021 when it was discovered that at least 39-40 people had actually attended the West Hoxton birthday party and first contact and subsequent contact infections were still growing. Other COVID-19 infections which likely originated within that area 30-40 miles south-west of Sydney's CBD were still being reported on 4 July 2021. 

Although concerns were growing of a possibly unknown transmission trail, there was not yet the political will to further extend the already expanded Greater Sydney lockdown or initiate a statewide hard lockdown. 

The Berejiklian Coalition Government's approach to public health infectious disease control was not occurring in a vacuum. On 23 June 2021 a fellow Coalition Government leader, Liberal MP for Cook & Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, publicly endorsed the Premier Gladys Berejiklian's reluctance to lockdown hard and early:

 “I commend the New South Wales Premier for the way that she is handling the outbreak in New South Wales, the fact that she hasn't gone to lock down Australia's biggest city. She has taken, I think, the very positive decision to keep Sydney open and to keep New South Wales open for its residents and to continue to rely on what is Australia's best contact-tracing system, the one in New South Wales.” [Prime Minister Scott Morrison in House of Representatives Hansard, 23 June 2021, p.44] 

It wasn’t until 25 June 2021 - 10 days after the West Hoxton super spreader party was held - that what might be described as a semi-hard lockdown began in Sydney's eastern and inner west suburbs. It seems at the time no-one had turned their minds to thoughts of possible further infection spread from West Hoxton deeper into Sydney's south-western suburbs.

On 25 June NSW Health reported that 20 of the 80 COVID-19 cases linked to the Bondi infection cluster were associated with the West Hoxton birthday party.

July 25th was Day 40 of the NSW Delta Variant Outbreak and 36 days after the West Hoxton party. The original figure of two people in the state with a locally acquired Delta Variant COVID-19 infection had risen to an est. 2,226  men, women and children with 8 deaths. On that day the records show 156 COVID-19 cases were in hospital, with 44 people in intensive care, 18 of whom require ventilation.

The next day that semi-hard lockdown grew to include all of Greater Sydney, as well as Wollongong, Blue Mountains and the Central Coast.

It wasn't until a tardy 56 days after that disastrous birthday party that a state-wide lockdown was imposed for 7 days.

At that point on Day 60 of the Delta Variant Outbreak data showed that, as of 8pm Saturday 14 August 2021, there had been 415 new locally acquired  COVID-19 infections in the last 24 hours with 4 deaths and, the number of locally acquired COVID-19 infections since the 16 June beginning of the outbreak in NSW now totalled 7,745 people - inclusive of 47 deaths. In addition there were currently 381 COVID-19 cases admitted to NSW hospitals, with 62 people in intensive care, 24 of whom require ventilation. 

COVID-19 infections caused by the SARS-CoV-2 Delta Variant continue to spread within the state population.

BACKGROUND

Uncorrected Hansard, excerpts of 10 August 2021 evidence before the New South Wales Legislative Council Public Accountability Committee of Dr. KERRY CHANT, Chief Health Officer, and Deputy Secretary, Population and Public Health, NSW Health, on former oath.

The Hon. PENNY SHARPE: We are looking for the precise date. The nature in which the advice was provided, we will ask you about a bit later, but we are specifically asking for the date—two dates really—on which your public health team started to prepare for the need to lock down parts of Sydney and on what date you informed the Health Minister of the need to do this?

Dr CHANT: There was a progressive range of restrictions put in place and on the twenty-fifth [June] we briefed—we acted quickly. There were already preparatory orders that had been previous orders that formed the basis of the stay-at-home restrictions. On that day, the Government responded to our initial request for lockdown of the Waverley, Woollahra, Randwick, City of Sydney and then quickly the escalating nature justified locking down the remainder of Greater Sydney. The lockdown did have effect in bringing the disease under control in south-eastern Sydney quite quickly. Unfortunately, it was unknown at the time that there was not containment of the West Hoxton party. Obviously more investigations will be done, genomic sequencing, and I have to apologise to the Committee that I have not had the opportunity to go back and look at all of that. But there is concern that there was leakage at that point that was not recognised at the time and then that led to establishment in south-western Sydney. The lockdown was less effective in south-western Sydney because of the lower testing rates and the impacted community needed to be engaged with. There were a number of challenges in seeing the same effect that we were seeing in south-eastern Sydney in that area. There has been a range of strategies put in place to work cooperatively with the local communities.....

Dr CHANT: Consistently public health has indicated the risk of seeding regionally and we have done a lot of work to prevent that. So there are requirements around testing for people who are going to the regions. We have certainly been doing a lot of messaging and we have been looking at opportunities to provide feedback on elements where the orders can be strengthened or clarified. As the Minister has said, we are actually asking people to not try and look for loopholes in the orders but rather to comply with the intent. We also were aware that our regional communities require critical health workers, other critical infrastructure workers—.....

Dr CHANT: At every step of the way we looked at the exposures, whether there were direct linkages, what were the risks, and made those decisions about the actions that needed to be put in place. Obviously with looking back there was a chain of transmission that was not detected and that was also playing into the mind that we needed to lock down. So all I can say is that we were looking closely at the information available, working with our public health networks and provided advice to government on a range of strategies. As I said, the outbreak was actually brought under control in south-eastern Sydney. It was really around when it got introduced into south-western Sydney that we saw the escalating case numbers. To be fair, it needed a different response in south-western Sydney and there is a lot of focus on supporting communities in south-western Sydney and understanding the disease…..

Dr CHANT: The information was based on the best available evidence at the time. Clearly the disease was not—initially they were very linked cases and then other controls were put in place. Clearly the lockdown was recommended and enacted, and we did have success in bringing the cases down. It was a seeding event into western Sydney that led to those—....

Dr CHANT: —West Hoxton, which was not recognised at the time. It was thought that cluster had actually been identified very early but there were issues around containment of that which were not appreciated. Obviously, with the benefit of hindsight, there are different decisions that can be made, but just be reassured that we were looking very closely at all elements of the response in terms of the recommendations to government about the controls at the time…… 

Dr CHANT: There would have been a range of discussions with the Minister, but the formal advice around going into lockdown was provided on the dates when the lockdown was instituted. As I said, everyone was looking at the data closely. I think the key issue was the issue around the seeding event and whether it was contained or not, which was not—initially, the West Hoxton party was thought to have been well contained because it was picked up quite quickly. With the benefit of hindsight, I think it is very clear to see that there was a greater risk of the seeding event in south-western Sydney than was appreciated at the time that emerged and that led to the lockdown. The lockdown did have effect in bringing down the numbers in south-western Sydney but was not as effective in heeding the cluster growth in south-western Sydney.……

Dr CHANT: Obviously in controlling case numbers we want to see the effective reproductive [R] rate down beneath one. We want to see declining numbers. Clearly there is no silver bullet for that but what you want to do is make sure you have effective recognition of cases and contacts and that good public health contact tracing…..

You also want to limit the opportunity for people to mix and reduce mobility. Things like mask-wearing can further mitigate that. Clearly I want to see a range of actions taken that reduce the R effective beneath one. As I said, we monitor those metrics but it is complex because we are wanting people to behave. I should say that we did observe that the community response to this outbreak was different from the first wave and we did not see the same changes in mobility patterns as we did with the first wave……

The Hon. COURTNEY HOUSSOS: I understand. Dr Chant, if it does fall below one, would that be then the basis for you recommending to loosen the current restrictions, including the lockdown?

Dr CHANT: No. I would like to see it go beneath one and then I would like to see the case numbers continue to decline. I would like to see us get down to very, very low levels of the virus and I would like to see vaccine coverage increase. They are my public health objectives that I would like to see.

Dr CHANT: If I could just comment on the Doherty report. I think what it reflects is that we will need some level of restrictions as we increase our vaccine coverage from that 70 to a higher percentage. We will still need restrictions. We will still need mask-wearing, we will still need to have public health contact tracing, we will still need to have a range of measures. Obviously the higher we get our vaccine coverage the better, but we will be responding to COVID. In the end COVID will be an endemic disease. We are very privileged that we have good vaccines that actually perform much better than the influenza vaccines. I think it is very important to know that we are not talking about "a normal". We know that as vaccine coverage goes up there will still need to be a range of public health restrictions and measures in place as we work to get that balance between societal, which is a matter for government, and the public health outcome, which is reducing the number of cases of COVID. [my yellow highlighting]

About those up to 40,000 Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses withdrawn from rural & regional New South Wales at the end of July 2021.....

In 2021 the New South Wales Higher School Certificate written exams for Year 12 students commence on 19 October and conclude on 12 November.

In Greater Sydney there are est. 52,400 students enrolled in Year 12 and it seems that the NSW Berejiklian Government has been unable to persuade Australian Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison to release enough Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to protect an est. 24,153 of these students living in Western and South Western Sydney during the current highly infectious Delta Variant Outbreak.  Despite the fact that children and adolescents are over represented in the current infection growth within the state and there is as yet no end date in sight for this viral outbreak.

ABC News, 28 July 2021

On 28 July 2021 NSW Health announced that: Up to 40,000 Pfizer doses will be allocated from NSW Health's rural and regional supply of COVID-19 vaccine to help Year 12 students in south west and western Sydney get back to school for face-to-face learning on 16 August.

By 31 July people in regional NSW were beginning to report receiving cancellation notices for scheduled appointments for first and second doses of the Pfizer vaccine, as well as at least one vaccination hub being stripped of Pfizer completely.

Twitter, retrieved 1 August 2021

One has to wonder about the logistics of the Premier and Health Minister’s plan to first dose vaccinate those approx. 24,153 high school students - who along with their peers are currently studying from home during the Greater Sydney lockdown – over a short window of 18 days.

Given the ever rising infection numbers, people living in rural and regional New South Wales are openly wondering if any thought has been given to the impact on their communities once the Delta Variant firmly establishes itself outside of Greater Sydney.

North Coast news you may have missed this week.......

 

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced on Wednesday 28 July 2021 that up to 40,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine would be redirected from the state's rural and regional COVID-19 vaccine supply to help Year 12 students in some of Sydney's worst-affected suburbs get back to school for face-to-face learning.

But with several COVID-19 cases in regional towns, including Coffs Harbour, Orange and the Central Coast, residents reacted cautiously to the announcement. 

"There are frontline health care workers who [still] haven't been vaccinated [in regional areas]," Rural Doctors Association of Australia's CEO Peta Rutherford said. 

"We just say it with warning — if they're moving the vaccines into Sydney, we would expect, should there be an outbreak, that the Premier is prepared to move Sydney vaccines to a rural town if required." 

On the Mid North Coast, the mayor of Nambucca Heads, Rhonda Hoban, said despite no COVID-19 cases so far, there were a lot of vulnerable people in the community still waiting to be vaccinated. 

"We've got three times the state average of people over the age of 65, a high Indigenous population and a significantly higher than average number of people who suffer chronic health conditions," Councillor Hoban said. 

"The real issue has been that we've had close to 18 months and we still don't have enough vaccines. 

“If there was an outbreak in the Nambucca Valley and they rushed Pfizer here, immunity is not immediate.” 

Similar concerns were held by the Mayor of Lake Macquarie Kay Fraser, who said regional NSW was being treated like Sydney's "poorer cousin". 

“I have a real issue with it," she said. 

“If it’s going to come out of the Hunter region or some of those regional areas out at Orange, where there is COVID-19, I’m really concerned.”  [ABC News, 29 July 2021]

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Twenty-four 24 brand new homes funded by a $4.1 million grant by the NSW Government - 12 two-bedroom and 12 single-bedroom - are to be built in South Grafton for disadvantaged families in partnership with North Coast Community Housing.

Work is expected to begin on the Bimble Ave site in South Grafton early in 2021, following council approval.

“North Coast Community Housing CEO John McKenna said the project would help alleviate housing stress by providing a significant boost to housing options in Grafton.

“The mixed tenure development is aimed at addressing three issues in the current housing market by offering six of the units for sale, nine units at an affordable rent for key workers and nine units for those most in need of social housing,” Mr McKenna said.” [DailyTelegraph, 28 July 2021]

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Details of the fines issued to 26 year-old George Thompson who breached the Greater Sydney lockdown by flying to Ballina on 14 July 2021 before being driven across the NSW-Qld border where allegedly “he used someone else's details to check into venues around Brisbane…..

July 26: Mr Thompson was fined $4,000 for failing to comply with a border direction, $4,000 for providing false information and $1,300 for failing to comply with a direction from an emergency officer. Ms Gray was fined $4,000 failing to comply with a border direction.” [Daily Mail, 29 July 2021]

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COVID-19 State of Play: Progression of NSW Delta Variant Outbreak up to 12 July 2021

NSW Health, media release, 12 July 2021

Sometime between 17-18 June 2021 it is highly likely that it became obvious to state authorities that the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 which causes a highly infectious form of COVID-19 was now loose in New South Wales.

At that point the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases in the state stood at 5,442 people, including interstate residents in NSW health facilities.

On 26 June 2021 the Berejiklian Government issued public health orders - eventually locking down Greater Sydney, Blue Mountains, Wollongong, Shell Harbour and the Central Coast.

By 8pm on Sunday 11 July 2021 the percentage of COVID-19 infections acquired in the community had grown to est. 92% of all confirmed new cases from all infection sources recorded since the Delta variant outbreak began in the state.

"NORMAN SWAN: This graph tells the story. The number of people who have been infectious while in the community keeps rising - day in, day out." [ABC “7.30” program, 12 July 2021]

To date there has only been one confirmed death in New South Wales due to COVID-19 infection since the new outbreak began on 17 June 2021.

NOTE:

See "2021 media releases from NSW Health" at

https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/news/Pages/2021-nsw-health.aspx 

UPDATE

NSW Health, media release, 13 July 2021