NSW has recorded 863 COVID-19 infections and seven deaths after Premier Gladys Berejiklian defended the government’s stance on denying freedoms to the unvaccinated before December.
Key points:
The Premier said life would be “very difficult indefinitely” for the unvaccinated
NSW Police said it would not be regularly checking people’s vaccination statuses
The Victorian Premier said his government would be watching how the situation in NSW unfolds
As the rolling seven-day average of daily casescontinued to trend down, the NSW government also announced stay-at-home orders for the Tweed and Byron Shire government areas would be lifted at midnight.
The snap lockdown was linked to a crew member connected to reality show I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here who travelled from Sydney and allegedly breached public health orders.
However, Health Minister Brad Hazzard said health authorities were monitoring other NSW regions which had seen an increase in cases including Port Macquarie, Kempsey and Muswellbrook.
“There’s more work to do … but I’m putting the community on notice that there may be a further announcement today in regard to [those three] areas,” he said.
“We just need to make some final decisions … in the meantime, my strong advice as Health Minister to all the residents in those areas is to be very cautious where you’re moving.”
BreastScreen NSW director Sarah McGill said the organisation was working towards again providing free mammograms to women after being forced to temporarily suspend screening because of the Delta outbreak.
Ms McGill said they were “working towards resuming services across the state on a case-by-case, site-by-site location”.
“Our priority, with all services, will be to rebook women as soon as we possibly can, women who have had their appointment cancelled due to the temporary suspension will be contacted by their local services and allocated a prioritised booking.”
Of the seven COVID-19 deaths announced today three had two doses of the vaccine, three had one dose and one person was not vaccinated.
Across NSW, 85.7 per cent of the over-16 population has received a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, and 60.4 per cent are fully vaccinated.
