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Australia’s approach to the pandemic – strict border policies, instant lockdowns and aggressive contact tracing – saw the country, as well as neighboring New Zealand, praised throughout 2020 for taking a no -tolerance in matters of public health. It paid off. As other countries grapple with overwhelmed hospital systems and devastating death tolls, Australia has benefited from large public gatherings and life went on normally for most people within its closed borders.
But faced with increasing cases of the delta variant, the Australian government has announced a radical change, now planning to “live with the virus” rather than eradicate it altogether.
In short, “Fortress Australia” has been violated.
During a televised briefing last month, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the lockdowns, which in parts of the country last for more than six months, were “not a sustainable way of life.”
“This Groundhog Day has to end, and it will end when we start to reach 70% and 80%,” he said, referring to vaccination rates.
Much of the country remains largely free from COVID. But the states of New South Wales and Victoria, home to the metropolises of Sydney and Melbourne, have seen a record number of daily infections in recent weeks. Between September 1, 2020 and July 1 of this year, the country recorded fewer than 5,000 cases of the coronavirus. But since then, the total number of cumulative cases has more than doubled in less than three months, from 30,684 to more than 66,000 as the delta variant took hold, according to Our World in Data.
“The reality is that the delta is too contagious to be able to wipe it out with the amount of restriction a population can endure who is already really, really tired of the restrictions after going through more than 200 restriction days previously,” the professor said. Ivo Mueller, an epidemiologist at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research, told ABC News. “So it has, in a sense, forced the hand of the government to accept that we have to go from ‘COVID Zero’ to ‘living with COVID. “”
But internal restrictions in New South Wales and Victoria, as well as heavy restrictions the government has placed on intra-state travel, could last for some time. Morrison’s target of 80% for vaccinations is unlikely to be reached by mid-October, according to current trends.
Currently, less than 35% of Australians are fully vaccinated, placing the country among the lowest among OECD countries.
Australia is now administering doses at higher rates than the peaks seen in the United States, but supply remains an issue.
“Reluctance to vaccinate is rare,” Professor Mary-Louise McLaws, an epidemiologist at the University of New South Wales, told ABC News. “Anti-vaccines exist here but are scarce in Australia. The real problem has been the lack of supply. Our authorities have been too slow to acquire sufficient doses of the vaccine for the young people, who were supposed to receive Pfizer, then the confusion. occurred when deliveries from Pfizer were blocked. “
This led to intense criticism from the government that it had failed to urgently hunt vaccines, as Morrison repeatedly told the public: “This is not a race.”
Now the Australian government has made deals with other countries, including Britain and Singapore, to secure Pfizer doses sooner and help end the lockdown sooner.
As the government’s exit strategy marks a shift in approach, some states are showing more eagerness to ease restrictions.
National border closures between states aside, citizens of the majority of Australian states live virtually COVID-free lives, and the idea of opening their doors can prove unpopular.
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian had previously warned that other states cannot continue to live “in their bubbles” forever.
Berejiklian announced Thursday that New South Wales, home to Australia’s largest city, Sydney, will ease lockdown restrictions from mid-October, when authorities expect 70% of adults of his condition are vaccinated. At that point, she said, Sydney’s restaurants, cafes and pubs will be able to reopen.
This is despite infections which persist at record levels. New South Wales recorded 1,599 cases of COVID-19 on Saturday – the highest daily tally since the start of the pandemic.
“I want to stress that today the government of New South Wales is presenting our plan, our roadmap for the way forward in New South Wales, that we are certainly not out of the woods.” , Berejiklian said at a daily briefing. “We know that the number of cases is likely to peak over the next week, and we also know that our hospital system will be under the greatest pressure in October.”
In Melbourne, residents are fed up with the cumulative 220+ days of lockdowns. Yasmin Vachha, an elementary school teacher in the Victorian capital, has been teaching at home for a total of 30 weeks, as the state moved in and out of lockdowns. She said experience shows that the country is “not a united front” and that it is increasingly “difficult to see the light”.
“The kids are flat out, the motivation is low and you can see this is all taking its toll,” she told ABC News. “We all have our own lockdown desperation and it’s getting harder and harder by the day. I hate that it’s normal now and we have to be okay with it. How are we still in this position?”
The criticism is not limited to Australians currently in the country. In March 2020, the government closed its international borders, banning most foreigners and capping the total number of arrivals to help keep the virus at bay.
As a result, tens of thousands of Australians remain trapped abroad – around 34,000 registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as stranded abroad. The actual number of people wanting to return home is probably much higher.
Some are discouraged from returning home with restrictive and costly quarantine measures, while others cannot get a plane ticket home at all.
The policies have separated thousands of families and have led to heartbreaking stories of Australians unable to return home to see terminally ill relatives. Many have been forced to miss weddings, births and funerals.
To make matters worse, Australia halved the number of international arrivals in July to around 3,000 passengers per week.
But in another sign that the Australian government is shifting gears, for the first time since the start of the pandemic, Morrison acknowledged on Wednesday the frustration Australian expats were experiencing and opened up the prospect of families being able to reunite at home to Noel: “You saved lives by enduring and going through these hardships, so thank you – I appreciate that, and your fellow Australians too.”
Morrison said his government was working hard to impose a home quarantine system, to reconnect Australia with the world.
There are now also indications that the government will lift a travel ban on Australians leaving the country. The Australian Lawyers for Human Rights, an association of legal professionals, has pressed the government to end its “harassment” of Australians living abroad.
Restrictions on internal borders have also led to grief and frustration. According to The Guardian, a resident of New South Wales this month was unable to cross the border for life-saving cancer treatment in neighboring Queensland due to a mandatory hotel quarantine, and the On Father’s Day, families separated by border closures squeezed across a state border that fell through the suburb of Coolangatta in Sydney.
A new app is being tested in South Australia that deploys facial recognition technology and cell phone alerts to replace the hotel system. It was described in the Atlantic as “Orwellian” in an article that said people would be “forced to download”, but an Australian government source said the terminology was misleading.
“The home quarantine app is for a select cohort of returning South Australians who have applied to participate in the trial,” a government spokesperson said. “If successful, this will help safely ease the burden of travel restrictions associated with the pandemic. “
The issue of threatened civil liberties has been exaggerated, according to McLaws.
“Although the restrictions are tough and we’ve had enough, Australians are less fixated on individual rights during this time,” she said. “Australians love their freedom, but they are not prepared to have it at the cost of many deaths.”
While the company’s new opening schedule will be good news for those living under some of the longest lockdowns in the world, an instant reopening or “freedom day” is not on the agenda, according to Mueller. The government has observed the high rates of transmission in highly vaccinated countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, and will continue to take a strict approach, he said.
“Eventually people will get to the point of wanting those freedoms again,” he said. “And I think all political leaders and heads of state recognize that, and I also think the Australian people recognize that eventually they will have to open up and that will mean the virus will be circulating among the people.”
“Australia”, he added, “cannot remain an island forever.”
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