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Australian Experts Call for Tougher Sydney COVID-19 Lockdown

Phil Mercer

   SYDNEY - A leading epidemiologist andan adviser to the World Health
   Organizationis calling for a nighttime curfew and daily testing for
   workers to bring Sydney's COVID-19 outbreak under control.

   With a lockdown not producingthedesired resultsin Australia's largest
   city,it'stime to implement even stricter restrictions.

   That's the opinion ofprofessorMary-Louise McLaws, an epidemiologist
   from the University of New South Wales. She is also a member of a World
   Health Organization expert panel on COVID-19.

   The state government in New South Wales, of which Sydney is the capital
   city, has said that higher rates of vaccination,up to 80 percent of the
   population,are the key to the gradual easing of restrictions.

   But McLaws says the benefits of mass inoculations will take time to
   reduce the spread of the delta variant.

   "We are not going to get out of this with the vaccine.We'recertainly
   going to prevent deathsandhospitalizations, and then eventually we will
   start seeing a wonderful public health impact on reduced spread.But we
   do need more testing at the worksite, daily testing.We need night
   curfews to stop people wanting to sneak out at night andgo and
   visitfriends or extended families,"McLaws said.

   State authorities in New South Wales concedethey maybe forcedto abandon
   thepolicy of trying to eliminate the virus because the spread of
   infections in Sydney is proving hard to stop,despite Australia's
   strictest lockdown. Instead of trying to crush the virus, officials say
   Australia might have to live with it and hope the population would be
   protected by mass vaccinations.

   Indeed, New South Wales set a new daily record Tuesday with 356recently
   diagnosed COVID-19 infections.

   StatePremier Gladys Berejiklian is pleading with residents, especially
   those in Sydney's virus hotspots, to get vaccinated.
   COVID-19 lockdown restrictions affect vulnerable communities in
   southwest Sydney, Aug. 10, 2021.

   "Those that are unvaccinated of any age continue to be vulnerable, and
   with case numbers where they are,unfortunately if you live in
   thoselocal government areas of concern there is a high chance now you
   could get the virus.Please protect yourself, your family, yourloved
   ones, your community by getting vaccinated,"Berejiklian said.

   Australia'sinoculationrates are much lowerthanother countries.About 22
   percent of eligible Australiansolder than16 have been fully
   inoculated.There have been problems with supply, but, crucially, there
   have been widespread concerns in the countryaboutpossible sideeffectsof
   the AstraZenecavaccine.

   A third vaccine, Moderna, has been approved by the Therapeutic Goods
   Administration,Australia's official medical regular.

   One million doses are expected to arrive in Septemberof the10 million
   dosesordered. The AstraZeneca and Pfizer treatments were approved
   earlier this year.

   Australia has recorded 36,330 coronavirus cases and 936 deaths since
   the start of the pandemic, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus
   Research Center.

   The country'svirus strategy includes the closure of its international
   borders to most foreigntravelers, strictlockdownsand mass testing.

   A lockdown that began last Thursday in Melbourne, Australia's second
   biggest city,continues.

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