Sydney's COVID-19 cases rise; four Australian cities in lockdown

Delaying the inevitable.

Its a disaster!!!! People are dying in droves!!!! Shut it all down!!!! Vanquish the virus!!!!

67,000 tests in Sydney in a day. That is about the same number as Tokyo does in 2 weeks or so. Everything about the Australian response is the opposite to Japan. Heavy fines with police checking rigorously for not wearing masks, traveling out of restricted areas or even being outside you home for an unsatisfactory reason.

However when it comes to holding the Olympics in another county, the covid safe policies no longer matter ( they must only apply for Australians I guess) , and Australia is at one with Japan to hold the covid safe games in a situation that would be totally impossible for them to be held in their own country.

Australia is heading for a disaster. 5% of the population vaccinated and no sign of it picking up pace.

Closing borders 15 months ago was a great idea. Keeping it closed past 9 months will prove to be a disaster. Now the Delta variant has made it in and you have a population which as a % has basically no immunity it has the chance to run rife. Now faced with lockdowns that are probably too late - there is a sad chance that the country could be facing its own nightmare.

To add to that, the population of Australia will start to look on as the rest of the developed world opens up, goes maskless and is allowed to travel again in a limited way and will start to get restless. Lets remember that Australians are banned from travelling abroad without an exceptionally good reason - period. This could well spell the end of the Morrison Government. Athletes from the Olympics will of course bring back some asymptomatic cases which will escape quarantine further angering the masses.

If the policy of eradication and zero deaths (impossible sadly) - is continued then this country will be cut off for 2-3 years. Vaccinate now and open up.

and - @anon99999, who cares how many tests they carry out a day? It is becoming irrelevant.

"I don't want an 18-year-old in Queensland dying from a clotting illness who, if they got COVID probably wouldn't die," Queensland state Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said in a media conference.

Funny that...we feel the same about our families here in Japan...yet you're sending your Olympians here.

Just sayin'

If they had closed the border instead and kept the economy and anything else of the country open in the inner, everything would have been fine, not even delta would have come with the sea wind. But the contrary, harsh restrictions within the country and keeping (air-)ports and border open, letting infected people in, making exchange programs with neighboring regions, e.g. NZ etc., leads to the effects that now can be observed.

theResident

i actually agree with you, but I posted the number of tests as in pointing out how opposite Australian policy is to Japan except when it comes to the olympics

anon99999Today  02:43 pm JST

67,000 tests in Sydney in a day. That is about the same number as Tokyo does in 2 weeks or so. Everything about the Australian response is the opposite to Japan. Heavy fines with police checking rigorously for not wearing masks, traveling out of restricted areas or even being outside you home for an unsatisfactory reason.

Very smart move with the large number of tests, to ferret out any cases where symptoms have not yet shown, or where people are asymptomatic.

Something you would think Japan might pick up on.

@anon99999: Apologies for taking you out of context :)

@Sven Asai: Its IMPOSSIBLE to keep completely seal your borders. Freight must still be delivered by Air, Citizens that want to get home (although that has been an incredible struggle for most) , just as an example. Without pointing out the obvious Australia is completely in the middle of nowhere and does need some imports!

Cracaphat

indeed Australia’s obsession with toilet paper is something that needs much further research

Overreaction.

Australia’s governments are loving this - they’re addicted to power and corrupt to the core. They keep hammering the vaccination message, but maybe, just maybe, more and more people are figuring out that the vaccines are posing more potential risk than the virus. The new boogeyman of the delta variant is being hailed as the coming of Satan himself, but the facts in other countries does not bear this out - the virus seems to be losing potency as it mutates, even though it seems to be more contagious.

I think this is exercise in seeing how much the public will take before they finally fight back. At present the governments don’t seem to have much to worry about, but their hubris will eventually undo them.

Not soon enough.