Millions of people across Greater Sydney have been under lockdown orders for ten days, but the current stay-at-home orders may remain in place for some time to come. NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian appeared to hint at a potential extension to Greater Sydney’s lockdown during a media briefing on July 6, saying that the state’s health experts would be in discussions throughout the day and a decision on whether lockdown would end at midnight on Friday, July 9 as planned would be announced on July 7.
The premier refused to confirm details, but Berejiklian did foreshadow that certain restrictions and health orders are likely to remain in place until at least October, when the state’s vaccine stockpiles are due to be replenished. Emphasising that the transmissibility of the highly contagious delta strain was something the state had never encountered previously, Berejiklian said with apparent certainty that life after lockdown would not allow for the same levels of freedom that NSW has enjoyed for much of the past year.
"This delta strain is likely to be the dominant strain of the virus until we have further information and we also appreciate that we need to vaccinate more of our population before we can live as freely as we would like. So in between now and vaccinating a greater proportion of our population, we need to think about what life looks like," the premier said.
The state’s top health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, said that until 80 per cent of the population had been vaccinated, certain settings – including hospitality and retail businesses, in the home, indoor public spaces – would need to remain under certain restrictions.
Speaking about the potential of an extension to the lockdown, the premier said that she was committed to making the current lockdown the last lockdown NSW residents should have to go through and that ensuring this would factor into the final decision on whether or not stay-at-home orders could lift on Friday, July 9.