Sydney lockdown to extend beyond August, top doctor predicts
Greater Sydney’s lockdown will likely be extended beyond August due to the amount of positive cases who had been active in the community, one of Australia’s leading epidemiologists has said.
It will take “at least a month” to get numbers significantly down and possibly even longer to see no community transmission, Professor Mary-Louise McLaws, advisor to the World Health Organisation (WHO) predicts.
“My projections are that it’s going to take at least a month to get that (case numbers) down,” she said on Weekend Today.
“Well, we will get down in about three weeks. And then you’ll need another two to ensure you’ve got it right. So at least three weeks of a certain level of really strict restrictions.
“And then perhaps if we get this right, then a couple of weeks of lighter restrictions.”
Professor McLaws said the latest outbreak highlights the importance of locking down early and fast, and that most people transmitting the disease in the community are young adults.
“It’s so important to do early lockdowns because then you don’t have so much virus to then have to clamp down,” she said.
“The group that are mostly acquiring infection and transmitting it have been 20 to 39- year-olds.
“I would suggest that we focus the rollout for the Pfizer on that group. I know it sounds tough for the older group, but they’re not at greater risk.
“And then once we do that smaller group, the 20 to 39-year-olds, they’re about 29 per cent of the population of Australia.”
Prof McLaws added that business owners should be given more support to compensate for their loss of income.
“They have been given a little bit of help but nowhere near enough,” she said.
Yesterday, New South Wales recorded 44 local of COVID-19 cases – the highest daily total in more than a year – and a raft of new restrictions were implemented across the state.
Under the new laws, people can now only travel up to 10 kilometres from their home to exercise and in pairs only.
Just one member of the household can leave the home from essential supplies and browsing in stores is strictly prohibited.
