Lockdowns have been ruled out and the Boxing Day Test will go ahead as planned, but Victorian officials may bring in density caps on events such as the Australian Open. covid19 AustralianOpen BoxingDayTest
Lockdowns have been ruled out and the Boxing Day Test will go ahead as planned, but Victorian officials may bring in density caps on events such as the Australian Open to avert aThe state government’s lockdown decision came as Prime Minister Scott Morrison indicated that mass vaccination hubs would be key to getting booster shots to millions of Australians under a recalibration of the program in the face of the new and worrying variant of COVID-19.
The modelling found stronger public health measures and a three-month booster interval were needed to bring the epidemic under control. Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton has not advised the Victorian cabinet that more restrictions are necessary. However, the senior official said curbs on high-risk indoor events such as closed-roof Rod Laver Arena matches would be a non-invasive measure that would barely impinge on people’s daily lives while yielding a public health benefit.
Another senior Andrews government source, also speaking anonymously, said the government had not yet pondered new rules beyond mask mandates in more settings. They said the government’s key objective over the next month will be to remobilise its vaccination workforce to administer hundreds of thousands of boosters a week from the first week of January to boost protection before the projected case peak later that month.
Professor Catherine Bennett, chair of epidemiology at Deakin University, said limits to testing capacity would mean it would be “impossible to know when we are getting even close to those numbers”.Professor Bennett said a critical factor when examining modelling was how much natural immunity from Omicron would dampen the spread in both vaccinated and unvaccinated people.
There are 3.2 million mRNA vaccine doses in state clinics, GP and pharmacy fridges around the country and that number is expected to rise to 4.8 million by Christmas. Another 13 million doses of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are ready to go in Commonwealth warehouses.
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