NSW Treasurer Matt Kean is considering unlimited trading hours for supermarkets and pharmacies to ease supply chain problems.
NSW Treasurer Matt Kean is considering allowing supermarkets and pharmacies to trade 24 hours a day and also looking at a targeted version of JobSaver, the former federal wage assistance scheme, as possible economic and supply-chain relief measures.
Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant is already preparing for an expected resurgence of the virus during winter, with assumed upswings in cases throughout 2022 to prompt changes to behaviour and policies.In another development on Wednesday, wait times for coronavirus vaccine boosters were reduced to three months from four at state-run vaccination hubs, with authorities saying bookings are “going begging” because of unenthusiastic take-up.and businesses struggling to find staff as coronavirus forces people to isolate, Premier Dominic Perrottet said it was important any support measures for industry were “evidence based”. “One side’s the financial investment, one side’s amending regulations and making it easy for businesses,” Mr Perrottet said.“That was a key factor last year. The support of reducing red tape and regulations for businesses made a real difference.” It is understood that one proposal on the table is allowing supermarkets, pharmacists and select retailers to operate 24/7 to ease stock shortages. Regulations around delivery times would be relaxed with different rules in place for more residential areas. A more targeted version of JobSaver could also be on the cards rather than the subsidies open to businesses during last year’s delta outbreak. Mr Perrottet said the NSW government, which went halves on JobSaver for a short time last year with the federal government, would always ask Canberra for support when it came to financial assistance.Advertisement NSW reported 32,297 new cases on Wednesday – including 10,417 positive rapid test results from the last seven days – and 32 deaths, with 217 people in intensive care. that, at the peak of NSW’s best-case scenario with the omicron wave, there would be 270 people in intensive care and 3158 infected patients in hospitals at about this time in January.“The future is difficult to predict, but I think those scenarios of an upswing of cases ahead of winter is something we have to plan and talk to the community about,” she said. “We will need to be aware that we will see upswings in cases, and we are going to have to adjust our settings, adjust our behaviour.”NSW Health deputy secretary Susan Pearce urged more state residents to take a coronavirus booster as Health Minister Brad Hazzard said that half of the people in intensive care were unvaccinated. “We have the capacity to do a lot more [booster shots],” Ms Pearce said. “It’s awful for us to see the bookings in our clinics to go begging.” Of Wednesday’s 32 deaths, which included three people in their 40s, 23 people had received at least two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, one person had received one dose and eight were unvaccinated. Those who died were aged between 40 and 80.Intensive care nurses protested outside Westmead Hospital in western Sydney, calling on the state government to address staff shortages. Shaye Candish, NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association general secretary, said nurses were tired, angry and frustrated. “The NSW government needs to be upfront with the community and concede the health system is not coping,” she said.Need to know. Our daily reporting, in your inbox.
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