The Premiers of the country’s two most populous states - both heading towards state elections - are holding the line on a “common sense” response to the current COVID-19 wave, despite hospital admissions due to COVID-19 set to hit a record peak.
, who previously imposed the world’s longest pandemic lockdown, again resisted calls for mandatory mask wearing and ordering people to work and learn from home, saying “common sense” was the most important defence.
, said the winter strain of influenza could be more severe than COVID-19 after declaring the “time of mandates is a time of the past, when you had lower vaccination rates”. “There are still more than 5 million Australians for whom there’s at least six months since they had their second dose of COVID-19 vaccine, but have not yet had a third dose,” he said.The highly infectious and immunity-evading variants of the omicron strain, BA.4 and BA.5, pose a significant new threat, Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly has said.
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