The ACT will gently step out of lockdown under “very careful” management over a “difficult” spring, according to Chief Minister Andrew Barr.
Not until all Australian states and territories have reached vaccination rates of more than 70 and 80 per cent can Canberrans expect their freedoms to return to that pre-lockdown.
“We’re not going to be in a position, given our vaccination rates and all that is transpiring around us, to go back to being where we were prior to this outbreak,” Mr Barr said.
“It will be gentle steps forward until the nation reaches those vaccination targets.”
The Chief Minister anticipates the nation-leading ACT will reach the vaccine targets first and that the entire country will “open up more fully” come summer.
Some 60 per cent of Canberrans aged 12 years and over are currently unvaccinated.
“That’s a lot of people we’ve got to protect and that’s what the next three months is about,” he said.
The next few months pose a “very delicate balancing act” for Mr Barr, particularly with NSW recording another daily case high on Thursday with 1,029 new local infections.
“There remains a high degree of uncertainty of what we’re going to face locally and what will play out around us in NSW and across the nation,” he said.
“As much as I would like to give certainty around particular dates, we simply can’t. We don’t know what’s going to transpire.”
Repeating his two-word mantra “get vaccinated” more than 30 times at today’s COVID-19 update press conference, hitting and exceeding the jab targets appears to be Canberra’s ticket to freedom.
“Until our community is vaccinated, we cannot return to normal,” Mr Barr said.
“The quicker people get vaccinated, the quicker we can all move forward, and things can return to normal.”
As for what the next “gentle step” may entail, some adjustments to the current restrictions are expected to be announced tomorrow, while what life in the ACT will look like in lockdown beyond 2 September into spring will be announced next week.
“Our pathway is to try and get the case numbers to largely where they are now, where we can have more days like today where the new cases have been in quarantine and not largely been infectious in the community,” he said.
Contactless trade and delivery for local retailers and other businesses deemed non-essential is “under active consideration” following calls from local businesses to allow them to operate on a level playing field to their interstate competitors.
“We’ll be balancing these issues for the entirety of spring,” Mr Barr said.
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