This has been a drastic choice by the local authorities in the wake of what already happened in the first pandemic wave but which has created much discontent in the country.
Australian authorities have pledged to put in place covid blocks to lower local infections until the majority of people are vaccinated. This means long lead times as fewer than 13% of Australians are vaccinated at the time of this writing, the worst score among developed countries, and adding that the country has only limited supplies of the vaccine. News of the rare cases of blood clotting recorded among AstraZeneca vaccinates has in fact made many Australians reluctant towards this vaccine while Pfizer doses are scarce.
Faced with this situation, many people are feeling frustrated to be back in lockdown after so much effort.
Here in Sydney, about fifteen thousand people took to the streets to protest the new anti-Covid lockdown imposed while the number of new cases due to the Delta variant is increasing throughout the country.
Unauthorized demonstrations, sometimes even violent, took place in Sydney but also in Melbourne and also in Brisbane, which is not even subject to forced closure.
But it was in Sydney, in particular that the demonstrators, almost all without a mask, clashed with the police in force, throwing plastic bottles and even flowerpots against the agents, who also intervened on horseback. A poor police horse was also punched in one of these fights.
The situation is tense and Australians, in particular Sydneysiders, are growing tired of what-they-call ‘non-sense lockdowns.’
Although the number of cases registered daily nationwide is still low in fact, about one in two Australians is forced to stay at home and thousands more Australians are subject to movement restrictions and the obligation to wear masks as a precaution.
During this pandemic which has been afflicting the world for almost 2 years now, Australia has in fact relied heavily on closing its borders and on mandatory quarantine in hotels for arrivals from abroad but is struggling to contain the Delta strain that first emerged in India due to its contagiousness.
Only around eleven per cent of Australians are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and many people are complaining about the slowness of the vaccination campaign in a country that is ‘rich’ and that has a fairly small population.
All people I know think that we are very late on vaccines, so it is time for people to go and ask for their vaccine otherwise, we will not be able to reopen the country, we will not be able to travel between states and to travel abroad I would add and we’ll see more and more riots on the streets of our peaceful country.
It is really time for the government to help people get vaccinated as soon as possible even though the cost of the vaccine is high and perhaps they were relying on AstraZeneca rather than Pfizer.
The outbreak in Sydney, Australia's hardest-hit city because of its high-density population, has seen many reported new cases in recent weeks and the lockdown could extend until September they say. Sydney residents are not allowed to leave the house except for getting groceries, doing exercise, and other essential reasons such as medical visits and watching the news about Europe and America regaining some ‘normality’ is making everyone here feel even more frustrated because we had much time to prepare.
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