As BFD writer Christie recently asked, I’m double vaccinated, along with approximately 70% of other kiwis. Why are we still in lockdown? Tasmanians and Victorians might well be asking themselves the same question.
Scott Morrison has confirmed that both Victoria and Tasmania hit a 70 per cent double vaccination milestone overnight, with new freedoms due on Friday.
“New” freedoms? I think he means the old freedoms — supposedly inalienable — that were rudely stripped away.
“I can officially confirm, I just got the figures, Victoria has reached 70.51 per cent vaccination rate, double dose right across the state,” the Prime Minister told Sunrise. “And good on Tassie too, because they’ve hit 70.6 per cent.”
Mr Morrison said Victoria had fought a long battle with Covid and that it ended from tomorrow
Except that it doesn’t: Victoria is relaxing some restrictions, but it remains far behind NSW.
As for Tasmania: the south of the state was locked down over the weekend, because of a single person leaving quarantine. No community transmission, note: not one single case of the China virus being spread in Tasmania.
Yet, for that, overnight half of Tasmanians were thrown into lockdown. I’m sure, of course, that it’s purely conspiracy theory thinking to suggest that it might have had anything to do with the weekend’s planned Freedom rally in Hobart.
I’m sure it’s also just conspiracy theory thinking to ask why, now that we’ve hit the thresholds that were laid out before us, we’re not getting what we were promised in return?
Australia has reached “phase B” of the national plan after hitting the 70 per cent double-dose vaccination threshold but with no return of international students, tourists or visa holders on the horizon, the higher education and business sectors have raised concerns on where the road map leads.
After all, under the “national plan”, we were supposed to be rewarded with a raft of reopening measures, including opening up borders. Indeed, NSW premier Dominic Perrottet announced just that, for NSW, last Friday.
The announcement was followed by a snap press conference from Scott Morrison to correct the record, who said while he welcomed NSW’s announcement, Australian citizens and permanent residents would return before skilled migrants and international students.
Which is kind of rich, considering that Australian citizens have been locked out of returning to Australia for nearly two years, even as 50,000 migrants were flown in.
But still, as the most locked-down state in the world, Victoria must have Covid knocked into a cocked hat, surely?
Victoria has reported 2232 locally-acquired cases of coronavirus, three overseas-acquired cases, and 12 Covid-related deaths on Thursday.
The new cases represent the state’s second-highest ever daily caseload after last Thursday’s 2297 […] The deaths take the state’s toll for the current outbreak to 187 – adding to 820 deaths of people with Covid in 2020 and taking Victoria’s total toll for the pandemic over 1000 for the first time, to 1007.
But, of course, “Dictator Dan” points the finger of blame everywhere but at the mirror.
A spokeswoman for Mr Andrews […said]: “The only thing that has been keeping us from opening up sooner is the lack of vaccine supply from the commonwealth.”
The Australian
Funny that: every other state in Australia has been in the same boat. Yet, somehow, Victoria still leads the nation in infections and has nearly double the deaths as the rest of the country put together. All this despite the harshest lockdowns in the world, costing the rest of the nation tens of billions of dollars.
It’s not us, Dan: it’s you. So spare us the lectures and sanctimony.
As for the rest of you politicians: we’ve got the jab, now you do your jobs.
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