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NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian has confirmed that once the state has reached the key milestone of 70 per cent of eligible adults fully vaccinated, restrictions will be eased for people who have been double jabbed only. The NSW government is considering October 18 as the date when lockdown settings can be relaxed, but in order to prevent the state’s hospital infrastructure from being overwhelmed, unvaccinated people will still need to observe a number of lockdown measures, while fully vaccinated people will be granted additional freedoms. “If you’re not vaccinated, don’t expect any freedoms at 70 per cent” the premier said.
At the press briefing on August 30, Berejiklian warned that October would likely be the most challenging month for the state’s healthcare system, as restrictions begin lifting and breakthrough cases and hospitalisations cause admissions to ICU to climb.
“We don’t know how long Covid will be with us,” Berejiklian warned. “I would rather have a process where we become accustomed to what life with Covid looks like and feels like and it should feel much less scary and much more hopeful as those vaccination rates go up, and I want us to beat every record of the planet in terms of what proportion of our people are vaccinated.” At the same press briefing, NSW chief medical officer Dr Kerry Chant said that vaccination boosters beyond the two initial doses were highly likely in the future and that the federal government had already secured supplies of vaccines that would last into 2022.
Details of NSW's roadmap out of lockdown, leaked on August 19, also foreshadowed that post-lockdown perks would be for fully vaccinated people at first. As of the date of publishing this report, 66 per cent of people aged over 16 in NSW had received a single dose and 36 per cent had received two doses.