Sydney’s lockdown extended as Delta variant takes hold

The Covid-19 lockdown in Sydney has been extended by at least another two weeks on top of the three weeks that Australia's biggest city has already been under stay-at-home orders.

After another 97 cases were announced on Wednesday in a breakout of the Delta variant of Covid-19, Sydney and surrounding areas of the state of New South Wales will remain under lockdown rules until 11.59pm on Friday, July 30th. If infection numbers are not quickly brought under control, the lockdown could be further extended until mid-August.

New South Wales state premier Gladys Berejiklian said of the latest cases that "Unfortunately, 24 of those were infectious in the community". There have been two deaths in what is Sydney's second wave of Covid, out of about 700 cases in the past fortnight.

A joint programme from the federal and New South Wales governments to aid businesses affected by the lockdown, which will cost more than A$500 million (€316 million) a week, has been broadly welcomed, but has sparked accusations of a “double standard” favouring prime minister Scott Morrison’s home state.

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A spokesman for the Victorian state government said: "Everyone in Australia believes people in Sydney and New South Wales deserve every possible support as they battle a second wave and a long lockdown.

“But Victorians are rightly sick and tired of having to beg for every scrap of support from the federal government. It shouldn’t take a crisis in Sydney for the prime minister to take action, but we are seeing the same double standard time and time again. His job is not to be the prime minister for New South Wales.”

Ms Berejiklian, like Mr Morrison, is from the Liberal Party, while the Labor Party is in power in Victoria.

Vaccination

With just 9.34 per cent of the population fully vaccinated, Australia is ranked last among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. Mr Morrison has previously said vaccination is “not a race” but the Delta variant outbreak has shone the spotlight on the country’s lack of vaccine availability.

AstraZeneca and Pfizer are the only options in Australia, with the latter in short supply due to an initial order of just 10 million doses to cover a population of more than 25 million.

A graphic new vaccine advertisement, which shows a young woman alone in a hospital bed, gasping for air, has been criticised for trying to shame people under 40 for not getting a vaccine they are currently ineligible for except under very limited circumstances such as having a pre-existing health condition.

It has also been widely noted that France’s international rugby team have been allowed into the country at a time when about 30,000 Australians are trapped abroad, unable to get flights home due to strict rules on returnees.