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NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says an end date for Sydney’s lockdown is unknown, denying suggestions the government is preparing to continue restrictions until mid September.
The Premier was responding to reports treasury had completed financial modelling for the lockdown to extend until September 17, as Greater Sydney’s stay-at-home orders stretched into a fifth week.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian says not even the experts know when lockdown will end.Credit:Lisa Maree Williams /Getty Images
“I wouldn’t jump to any conclusions like that,” she said on 2GB radio
“[That information] certainly wasn’t from me or anyone in the know.”
Ms Berejiklian said Sydney’s lockdown was a “day by day” issue but that the government was assessing whether some restrictions can be eased from July 31.
“I know that everybody thinks they’ve got a scoop in saying when this will end … the real answer is not even the experts know that answer,” she said.
Ms Berejiklian was speaking on Monday morning after the state on Sunday recorded 141 local cases and two deaths, including a woman in her 30s with no underlying health conditions.
There were a record 102,233 tests performed in the 24 hours to 8pm on Saturday and 43 people in intensive care including 18 who are ventilated.
The Premier said she was ”absolutely sorry” people of NSW have had to suffer through the lockdown.
Asked whether she should have imposed a localised lockdown earlier, Ms Berejiklian said there was no way of predicting how the outbreak would play out.
“I wish …you can never have a crystal ball,” she said on 2GB.
“I’m never going to claim you can have the right settings and perfection in the pandemic.
“There’s no rulebook for the Delta strain.”
Ms Berejiklian has continued to stress that vaccination rates will be critical to getting the current outbreak under control.
“With this strain, everybody gets it. So if you take it home and you have five or six people at home, everybody is going to get it. If you go to a workplace and you’re who your work colleagues and not doing the right thing and you’ve got it, everyone’s going to get it,” she said on Nine’s Today program.
“Yes of course, lockdown and restrictions but also, getting those vaccination rates up, because we know from the health experts’ advice … that even one dose reduces how contagious you are.”
Her comments came after the NSW Premier and the Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Sunday appeared to be at odds over how to bring Sydney’s coronavirus outbreak under control, with Gladys Berejiklian insisting that an increase in vaccinations was the city’s best chance of reopening, while Scott Morrison said lockdown was the only solution.
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