Australia plans to reopen, with Covid-19 killing 1,000 despite blockade | Travel

Australia’s Covid-19 deaths have exceeded 1,000 and are severe casualties, but because it is modest by global standards, countries that have used relentless blockades are probably the biggest health policy challenge for the pandemic. I am facing a way to resume.

The highly infectious Delta variant broke national fortress-style control, settled deep enough in Australia’s largest city, Sydney, and gained a foothold in Melbourne, so authorities skipped plans to eliminate it. bottom.

Instead, they plan to step up Australia’s delayed vaccination efforts and live with Covid-19. This is an approach that helps companies struggling, but is opposed by states that have decided to crush the disease.

According to government data, Australia reported four deaths on Monday, with 1,003 deaths from Covid-19. Data show that an average of 2-3 deaths have been recorded each day recently.

However, while deaths are rising, infectious diseases are skyrocketing to a record high of over 1,200 people a day. More than half of the population is blocked and affected in areas with little or no infection.

The vibrancy associated with the success of Australia’s early suppression has since been replaced by community frustration with the recently accelerated and delayed vaccine program.

More than 33% of people over the age of 16 have been vaccinated twice, well below most comparable countries, according to Reuters followers.

As tired countries reopen, authorities want to avoid the surge in infections and deaths experienced in countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States, which recently killed more than 1,000 people a day.

The Australian lesson is that the mask should not be abandoned as restrictions will be relaxed, and the classroom should be better ventilated to protect students from aerial viruses, epidemiologist Raina MacIntyre. Said.

“Wearing a mask is a small price to pay to gain that additional layer of control,” said McIntyre, head of the biosecurity research program at the Kirby Institute of UNSW Medicine. “In addition to vaccines, we need strategies as well as ventilation.”

Pushback to Live With It Plan

Australia plans to begin deregulation at the end of the year once 70% of people over the age of 16 are fully vaccinated. According to a government-sponsored plan modeled by the Melbourne-based Doherty Institute, 80% will later have a gradual resumption of international travel.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison wants Australia to treat Covid-19 like the flu as vaccination rates rise. “That’s our goal, to live with this virus, not to live in fear of it,” he said last week.

However, some almost free states, including Queensland and Western Australia, are retreating after seeing stressed medical services at the heart of the Delta outbreak in the Sydney region.

There are 840 people in the hospital receiving Covid-19 treatment at the epicenter, 137 in the intensive care unit, and 48 in need of ventilation.

Western Australia’s Prime Minister, Mark Magawan, said his iron ore exporters wanted to block as needed and “crush and kill” the virus.

Daniel Gushwind, chief executive officer of the Queensland Tourism Industry Council, said the outbreak and blockade were devastating tourism operators.

“We’re not blocked and that’s great, but tourism is like a pipeline,” he said. “It doesn’t matter where the pipeline is broken. If you sit at the end of the pipeline, nothing goes through.”

The Australian economy, which recovered rapidly in the early stages of the pandemic, is expected to shrink sharply this quarter and could return the country to recession if it continues to decline for the rest of the year.

Of the 20 great power groups, Australia is the last to record 1,000 Covid-19 deaths. Of the four major economies in the Asia-Pacific region, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore are well below 1,000 and New Zealand is the lowest with only 26.

The increase in the number of cases in Australia means trying to resume under the cloud of infection when there was little virus up to the Delta strain.

The high infectivity, short incubation, and asymptomatic spread of Delta meant that it spreads shortly after it was first detected in Sydney in June. The number of cases is high for young people who have limited or no access to the vaccine.

Follow more stories above Facebook When twitter

This story was published from a news agency feed without changing the text. Only the heading has changed.