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NSW Premier Says It Will Be 'Near Impossible' To Bring Covid-19 Cases Back To Zero

NSW Premier Says It Will Be 'Near Impossible' To Bring Covid-19 Cases Back To Zero

Gladys Berejiklian still wants case numbers 'as low as possible' but is now focusing on vaccination rates to get us out of the outbreak.

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

The New South Wales Premier admits it will be 'near impossible' to bring the state's Covid-19 daily cases back down to zero.

The state recorded 478 new cases since yesterday's (August 15) count, which is a record for this latest outbreak.

On Sunday, there were 415 new cases of the virus and a whopping 466 on Saturday (August 14).

This is despite Greater Sydney being in lockdown for several weeks. The outbreak has now spread into regional areas of the state and, as a result, the whole of NSW has now been plunged into lockdown.

PA

The government has announced the 10km radius for Sydney people to exercise, shop, work and conduct care has now been reduced to 5km from your home.

Penalties have increased to up to $5,000 for breaking the rules and lying about them to authorities.

During the pandemic last year, efforts were made to keep the state's daily new cases of community transmission to zero and they achieved that feat.

However, Premier Gladys Berejiklian is concerned this might not happen with this new outbreak.

She said eliminating the Delta variant would take a miracle.

PA

"I think all of us accept that completely eliminating Delta is something that is near impossible," Ms Berejiklian said over the weekend.

"When you look around Australia and other states, who had lower case numbers than us, it is very (difficult) to get those down.

"But our aim is to have case numbers as low as possible and to have vaccination rates as high as possible. We have to achieve both in order for us to live freely into the future.

"We have to learn to live with it. But the best chance we have to live with it freely and safely is to get the case numbers down as low as possible."

PA

Her southern counterpart, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, was much more blunt in his assessment of NSW.

When asked on his thoughts for tackling this outbreak, Mr Andrews said: "There is no way they are going to get to zero. They are going to have to vaccinate their way out of this".

Sydney isn't alone in this, with Melbourne in the midst of its sixth lockdown and there have been 22 new cases since yesterday.

The Prime Minister has managed to secure an extra million doses of the Pfizer vaccine from Poland, with a large portion going to NSW.

Authorities are hopeful supply and demand for the vaccine continues at its current rate and we'll reach that all-important 80 per cent mark soon.

Featured Image Credit: Sky News Australia

Topics: Australia