SYDNEY • Cafes, restaurants and pubs in Sydney are set to reopen next month after months of strict Covid-19 lockdowns, even as Australia's Prime Minister warned that higher case numbers will follow the easing of curbs.
The Sydney authorities said bars and eateries, as well as gyms, across the city of five million people would be able to reopen at reduced capacity within days once New South Wales (NSW) reached a 70 per cent double-vaccination target, now expected around the middle of October.
Stay-at-home orders for the fully vaccinated will be lifted on the Monday after the target is achieved, officials said.
The plans come as daily infections linger near record levels in NSW amid a spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant, with the state registering 1,405 new local cases yesterday, down from 1,480 a day earlier. There were five new deaths recorded.
"Living with Covid-19 means you have a cautious and staged reopening once you get to those high rates of vaccination in your adult population," NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said during a media briefing in Sydney, the state capital.
Ms Berejiklian expects cases to rise when restrictions ease and warned of localised lockdowns if "there is a concentration of disease in any suburb".
Lockdown rules in several regions outside greater Sydney have been lifted since last Saturday after low case numbers there.
Under the new plan, pubs and cafes in Sydney could reopen before schools, which will begin classes for younger age groups from Oct 25.
"(School reopening) date is fixed because we need to provide certainty and planning for school communities... but for adults, we have the capacity to be more flexible," the NSW Premier said.
Ms Berejiklian had initially pursued a Covid-zero strategy to quell an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant that began in mid-June, but has since shifted to focusing on increasing inoculation rates.
About 43 per cent of the population aged above 16 in NSW, Australia's most populous state, have been fully vaccinated, slightly higher than the national average of 40 per cent.
Sydney's staggered reopening plans bring some certainty for businesses, with lockdowns in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia's largest cities, threatening to push the A$2 trillion (S$1.98 trillion) economy into its second recession in as many years.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said yesterday that the reopening efforts of NSW are aligned with the four-stage national plan unveiled in July that promised more freedoms once the country reaches 70 per cent-80 per cent inoculation.
"The next stage will be hard... we'll see case numbers rise and that will be challenging," Mr Morrison said in Canberra, adding: "But if you want to live with the virus you inevitably have to pass down that tunnel."
He also urged state leaders to "hold their nerve" when they begin to live with the virus, although some virus-free states have hinted they may delay their reopening even after reaching higher vaccination coverage.
Australia's Covid-19 numbers are far lower than in many other countries, with just over 68,000 cases and 1,066 deaths.
Increased vaccination levels have kept the death rate at 0.41 per cent in the Delta outbreak, data shows, below previous outbreaks.
Victoria state, of which Melbourne is the capital, reported 324 new cases yesterday, up from 221 on Wednesday.
REUTERS
