Australia Needs 6 Million Vaccinated People To Loosen Locks, PM Morrison Refuses To Give Incentives

Illustration of the quiet atmosphere of COVID-19 Australia. (Wikimedia Commons/Kgbo)

JAKARTA - Australia's New South Wales Authority announced on Tuesday it could ease a lockdown that has kept around five million people at home until the end of August (the majority in Sydney), if 50 per cent of the population had been vaccinated.

Even if this is achieved, authorities believe the lockdown can still be eased even if new infections hold around the 16-month record number of infections recorded last week.

The lifting of restrictions in New South Wales is a boost for Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who is under intense pressure to tackle a vaccine rollout by his government, with the threat of a second economic recession in the next few years.

New South Wales, which accounts for a third of all Australia's $2 trillion ($1.47 trillion) economic activity, has been struggling to contain a surge in cases of the highly contagious Delta variant in Sydney, the country's largest city, even as it continues to grow. it is currently in lockdown and will only be lifted on 29th Aug if possible.

Today, New South Wales reported 199 locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, approaching a 16-month high of 239 infections recorded in a single day last week.

State Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian said restrictions could be eased if six million people were vaccinated by the time the lockdown would end.

"Six million injections, roughly half of the population with at least one or two doses. That gives us additional choices about what life will be like on August 29," Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney.

Australian COVID-19 illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/Kgbo)

Berejiklian did not say exactly how many in New South Wales were fully vaccinated on Tuesday, but said the state was on track to meet its vaccination target. However, he warned that the number of people in the community who were infected should also decrease.

The targets in New South Wales come just days after Prime Minister Scott Morrison promised a lockdown would be less likely, after the country inoculated 70 per cent of its population over the age of 16, far from the current 19 per cent level. PM Morrison expects to hit the 70 percent mark by the end of the year.

Interestingly, PM Morrison rejected the idea of offering financial incentives to citizens of Kangaroo Country, to increase the COVID-19 vaccination rate in the country.

"If (Australians) have doubts about a vaccine, I'm not going to pay for it (incentives)," Morrison told reporters in Canberra this Tuesday.

PM Morisson also today released the modeling behind the national strategy, showing Australia will need to vaccinate seven out of every 10 people to be able to control the spread of the virus without an economically damaging lockdown.

Sydney's lockdown is expected to see Australia's economy shrink this quarter. Treasury Secretary Josh Frydenberg earlier warned that the length of the stay-at-home order will determine whether a recession can be avoided or not.

Despite the ongoing threat to the economy, Australia's Central Bank on Tuesday said it would stick with its plan to reduce bond purchases from September, despite contradicting marketing expectations.

For information, launching Worldometers to date, Australia has recorded a total of 34,836 cases of COVID-19 infection, with 925 people dying and as many as 29,926 people being declared cured since last year's pandemic.