Is Jeanette Young still the CHO of Queensland? I think it was originally mentioned the handover will occur around November?
Monday
Iâd consider this was the standard set by Gladys Berejiklian after all her nasty and self-righteous comments against Melbourne in 2020. It went mostly unchecked by national sydney-based media. NSW is in no position to judge Mark McGowan now.
NSW residents can judge who we like. Itâs not our fault Gladys ran her mouth off. She doesnât speak for us all.
What McGowan is doing has gone too far. Even QLD is opening up. He needs to get with the program.
Suppression is OVER. We now live with the virus. And as you can see, NSW is doing fantastic work at the moment living with it. You just have to see the hospital rates and ICU rates at the moment and how low they are to see itâs workable.
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Tell that to anyone in this state whoâs caught the virus or better yet, family members of those whoâve died from the virus in recent months.
Are you going to use this as a response for the next number of years that COVID could be around for?
You must want us to stay in lockdown until itâs gone? Hate to break it to you buddy but people were catching the virus and dying even when we were in lockdown.
NSW is doing fantastic work right now.
We are still in the 200-300 daily cases mark two weeks after we opened. Our hospital and ICU rates are dropping daily. What more can you ask for?
I donât understand what you want.
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I guess you could say the same thing about being locked up. Ask someone whoâs anxiety has got worse, or is currently in therapy because they couldnât say goodbye to their father or whoâs child died due to suicide or someone with intellectual disabilities who was learning to live in society but had that taken from them.
Deaths and illnesses are going to be as a result of either locking down or learning to live with it. At least we have a vaccine to assist with learning to live with it.
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You keep saying that but he is doing what the majority of people in WA wants. You may not like it but the fact is he has overwhelming public support to keep doing what he is doing.
WA will re-open. Not when you are ready but when they are ready.
Edit: That public support wonât last forever. Once vaccination numbers are high enough WA will turn on McGowan if he doesnât get on with it. Heâs not an idiot, he knows this.
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Ah well. They can do whatever they want. Thereâs nothing over there worth going for anyways lol jokes.
I am curious on peopleâs thoughts on thisâŚ
WA kept the border closed and everyone within the state was able to live and work normally (for the most part) over the past couple of years.
NSW and Victoria didnât like that and opened up and instead had city and statewide lockdowns for most of that time (in Victoria anyway).
How was that better than just closing the state to outsiders from the beginning and living life close to normal this whole time?
I donât understand how WA wanting to play it safe for a while longer is a problem. Everything they have done has worked well so far. Now they can watch how opening up works for the rest of the country while continuing to get people vaccinated. If all goes well then they can open too. This isnât a race.
We have already established the healthcare system blows so the last thing WA needs now is a wave of infections when there are still so many who arenât fully vaccinated.
Yes, people canât see family for another Christmas. That sucks. Believe me it sucks. But if waiting a few more months for WA to catch up with vaccinations means we prevent unnecessary COVID related deaths then it is a small price to pay.
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I think Iâd still rather live through NSW way of handling it.
Yes thereâs been numerous lockdowns and outbreaks but at least during the pandemic Iâve been able to see family in QLD and Victoria 3 times in between as opposed to not seeing family in WA at all.
What WA has done hasnât been too dissimilar to what SA has done with putting up the borders to Vic and NSW when they have outbreaks. Itâs just we have signaled when we plan on opening and are sticking to the 80% open and quarantine and 90% open and no quarantine. With SA being ahead of WA in vaccinations there isnât the criticism. Plus because SA is usually the butt of jokes we donât overdo the mud slinging like WA and the Eastern States.
SA has had a fairly normal time except for two lockdowns and slight mask wearing at the moment. Some capacity restrictions in restaurants but when I look at some of them I question where can they add any seats and it not be chock a block.
WA will open up eventually but will have to accept when they do open there will be some level of Covid in the community and it might not come from NSW or Vic, it might be any of the other states.
Mark? Is that you?
Jokes. Purely selfish (in a covid safe way) from me. I moved here in August 2019 and havenât been able to go back once, so I just want to go home and see my fam. Im double vaxxed. Happy to test (negative), apply with G2G, jump through hoops, give up my second born and isolate if I have to.
Thatâs all.
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But this is the thing, at current rates WA is forecast to hit 80% Double Dose on Dec 2, plenty of time to put a plan in place and open up or at least ease restrictions on those coming in/coming back from interstate who want to visit family. The hard border, the lack of empathy and zero compassionate exemptions is absolutely not a program I can get onboard with.
Noone is asking WA to open today at current vax levels. But given everyone has had their chance by XMas I donât see why you would delay the inevitable.
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Itâs not about waiting for them to catch up on vaccination rates. Current projections have them well above 80% by the start of December. So by Christmas it will be well above that (and they would be above 90% easily if Mark gave people more of a reason to hurry up and get vaccinated). Vaccination rates are not going to grow significantly between Christmas and whenever they decide to open in the new year because they will already be very high.
There are so many families torn apart from this. Youâve seen some examples of posters above. I also have an uncle that moved to Victoria a couple of years ago and he has not been able to go back. Heâs been trying to get someone over here all year to stay with him and theyâve cancelled the trip 3 times due to lockdowns and border closures. Itâs been really hard. I also have an aunty over there and her son and grandchildren live on the east coast. People have been too scared to travel to WA for the past year because of how quickly borders have been shut on them. Christmas should be the perfect opportunity with high vaccination rates to reunite these families.
At least WA has been consistent. SAâs approach has just been so inconsistent.
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Think we might now know why thatâs the case.
Though Iâm curious to see whatâs the hold up. I mean it doesnât take years to get this modelling sorted so why are they still taking their time?
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I think they should have waited. I know I was getting impatient but yesterday just annoyed me more.
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I am feeling that WA will wait for the 80% double dose rate to be reached (or soon to be reached) before it even starts drafting a plan to reopen to NSW/VIC. If the hard border stays in place until sometime in 2022, it will not only continue to inconvenience travel for families between WA and the eastern seaboard, it will also affect all major national sporting competitions like cricket, AFL, rugby union and netball, as WA-based teams wonât be able to play their matches at home.
QLD - no new local cases 1 HQ case.