The NSW Premier has said the West Australian premier’s vision of a coronavirus-free country “isn’t realistic”.
Gladys Berejiklian snapped at reporters in Sydney on Monday for interrupting her while answering a question about WA Premier Mark McGowan’s comments that he would retain the right to close his state to NSW arrivals even after vaccination rates are increased to 70 or 80 per cent.
“We want to get as close to having no infectious people in the community as possible, we’ve said we want to get as close to that number as possible,” she told reporters.
“And that is exactly what we’re striving for, let me make that very clear.
“But can we pretend that there will always be zero cases of Delta in Australia? I don’t think that is a realistic proposition.”
Her comments came on the worst coronavirus day so far for NSW.
The state broke both its daily case number record and its record for daily deaths caused by the virus, with 478 new cases and seven fatalities.
WA meanwhile has been mostly coronavirus-free, with less than 1100 total cases during the entire pandemic and only nine deaths.
“What is realistic, is trying to get the number of infectious people in the community as close down to zero as possible, that is always our intent,” Ms Berejiklian continued.
“But we also have to accept we're not going to wipe this out, we’re not going to have a situation where across Australia, whether it’s in the quarantine system or elsewhere, that we’re not going to have zero cases.”
Her comments were interrupted by a barrage of follow-up questions from reporters, but the Premier tried to cut through to finish her point.
“Can I say … Can I make this point … Excuse me, can I finish?” she snapped.
“What I’ve just said, is no different to what we’ve said for weeks and weeks and weeks, it’s no different from what we’ve said at the start of the pandemic.
“We can’t pretend we will get to zero and stay at zero forever.”
Mr McGowan’s comments came on Sky News Australia the day before, where he said he would continue with border restrictions and lockdowns even when 80 per cent of the population had been vaccinated.
“Our preferred option is zero Covid, obviously, and that's what we’ll attempt to do,” Mr McGowan said.
When asked if he would maintain a hard border with NSW if the state never achieved zero Covid cases, Mr McGowan said: “We retain that right. Obviously, I'd prefer not to.”
“When they get down to zero or minimal spread, then we can look forward to opening the (WA-NSW) border.”
His comments were slammed by the Prime Minister on Monday, who lamented that Mr McGowan‘s plans to pursue a zero Covid policy as “running down the (national Covid-19) plan” and ”discouraging people to get vaccinated”.
“It has never been the job to get to zero Covid,” Mr Morrison said.
Speaking on the ABC, the PM stressed that Mr McGowan’s plan “wasn’t what was agreed in national cabinet” and that his claims contradicted modelling by the Doherty Institute on when it was safe to phase out lockdowns and restrictions.
“Once you get to 80 per cent vaccination, it is against the county‘s interests not to open up,” he said.
Mr Morrison stressed that the state and federal governments had made a “deal” with the Australian people that restrictions would ease across the country once vaccination rates reached 70-80 per cent.
“That's the deal that all Premiers and Chief Ministers signed up to in making that commitment to their own citizens,” he said.
“We've got to hold to that.”
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMilQFodHRwczovL3d3dy5uZXdzLmNvbS5hdS9uYXRpb25hbC9uc3ctYWN0L25ld3MvbnN3LXByZW1pZXItc2F5cy13YS1sZWFkZXJzLXplcm8tY292aWQtdmlzaW9uLW5vdC1yZWFsaXN0aWMvbmV3cy1zdG9yeS9kZDk3YzZmN2IxNWVjOTczMmFkYWM1OWQ1NjQ5OTg3NtIBlQFodHRwczovL2FtcC5uZXdzLmNvbS5hdS9uYXRpb25hbC9uc3ctYWN0L25ld3MvbnN3LXByZW1pZXItc2F5cy13YS1sZWFkZXJzLXplcm8tY292aWQtdmlzaW9uLW5vdC1yZWFsaXN0aWMvbmV3cy1zdG9yeS9kZDk3YzZmN2IxNWVjOTczMmFkYWM1OWQ1NjQ5OTg3Ng?oc=5
2021-08-16 03:29:54Z
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