Sydney’s cafes, restaurants and pubs are set to reopen in the second half of October after months of strict COVID-19 lockdown, even as the Prime Minister warned higher case numbers will follow the easing of curbs and leaders must “hold their nerve”.
Authorities said Sydney bars and eateries, as well as gyms, across the city of five million people will be able to reopen at reduced capacity within days New South Wales (NSW) reached a 70% double-vaccination target, now expected around mid-October.
Stay-at-home orders for the fully vaccinated will be lifted on the Monday after the target is achieved, the 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 on Thursday, down from 1,480 a day earlier. Five new deaths were recorded.
“Living with COVID means you have a cautious and staged reopening once you get to those high rates of vaccination in your adult population,” NSW state Premier Gladys Berejiklian said during a media briefing in Sydney, the state capital.
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 from Saturday after low case numbers there.
Under the plan, pubs and cafes in Sydney could reopen before schools, which will begin classes for younger aged-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,” she said.
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% of the population above 16 in the state, Australia’s most populous, have been fully vaccinated, slightly higher than the national average of 40%.
STAGGERED REOPENING
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 ($1.47 trillion) economy into its second recession in as many years.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday the reopening efforts of New South Wales align with the four-stage national plan unveiled in July that promised more freedoms once the country reaches 70%-80% inoculation.
“The next stage will be hard … we’ll see case numbers rise and that will be challenging,” Morrison said in Canberra. “But if you want to live with the virus you inevitably have to pass down that tunnel.”
Morrison 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 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% in the Delta outbreak, data shows, below previous outbreaks.
Victoria state, where Melbourne is the capital, reported 324 new cases on Thursday, up from 221 on Wednesday.
Japan to extend COVID-19 emergency curbs in Tokyo, other areas
EPA-EFE/FRANCK ROBICHON
Japan said on Thursday it will extend emergency COVID-19 restrictions in Tokyo and other regions until the end of this month to curb infections and prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed, saying it was too early to let down its guard.
Japan has been struggling with a fifth wave of the virus and last month extended its long-running curbs until Sept. 12 to cover about 80% of its population.
However, the number of severe cases and the strain on the medical system have not eased sufficiently in Tokyo and surrounding areas to allow restrictions to be lifted.
The government will extend the measures until Sept. 30, including for Osaka in the west, Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said after meeting with an advisory panel, which ratified the plan.
Japan‘s emergency curbs have centred on asking restaurants to close early and refrain from serving alcohol, while urging residents to telework as much as possible and refrain from travel.
Some signs of improvement around the nation mean that two prefectures out of 21 will move from the state of emergency measures to more targeted restrictions, while a number of other prefectures will remove all curbs.
“I believe we’re starting to see results, but it’s still too early to lower our guard,” Health Minister Norihisa Tamura said at the meeting.
The plan will be formalised at a government task force meeting later on Thursday and announced by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga at a news conference.
The Nikkei newspaper, meanwhile, reported that the government is moving towards easing international entry restrictions by reducing quarantine times for vaccinated travelers. The move has been urged by Keidanren, Japan‘s main business lobby, as well as foreign chambers of commerce.
“We welcome any proposal to re-open Japan‘s borders to business travel, as part of a science-based approach to preserving public health,” Christopher LaFleur, special advisor to the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan, said in a statement.
Many of Japan‘s top trade partners allow vaccinated travelers to enter freely and mandate quarantines of just 10 days for those without the shots, and it’s “reasonable that Japan adopt the same policy,” LaFleur added.
Local media have reported that the government may allow restaurants to resume regular business hours and alcohol sales as the vaccination push nears completion in October and November.
Authorities are considering plans that would reward businesses that maintain current infection controls, such as foot traffic limits, or alternatively to encouraging in-store checks of vaccination and testing status.
Japan‘s vaccine rollout took place later than with many other nations but roughly half of the population has now been fully vaccinated.
Tokyo’s new daily coronavirus infections totaled 1,834 on Wednesday. The country has reported around 1.6 million cases in total and 16,436 deaths, although the death rate has declined in the latest outbreak. That 1% fatality rate compares with 1.6% in the United States and 1.9% in Britain.
Shigeru Omi, the nation’s chief health advisor, said on Wednesday the pandemic fight is shifting to focus more on the threat of new viral variants or a possible decline in the effectiveness of vaccines.
The fact that Japan has had five waves of contagion points to the nation’s challenges in tackling the pandemic, said Denis Kinane, an immunologist and co-founder of British testing company Cignpost Diagnostics. And as in other nations, vaccination alone is no path out of the crisis.
“What is clear now is that achieving herd immunity for COVID-19 is impossible,” Kinane said. “It is possible for a gradual return to what was regarded as normal in the pre-COVID world, but only if we continue to act cautiously.”
