Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan has critiqued the COVID-19 strategy of his New South Wales counterpart – urging Premier Gladys Berejiklian to come into line with the other states in adopting an elimination strategy.
Many states and territories have closed their borders to NSW; despite the fact the state's coronavirus caseload does not constitute the National Cabinet’s definition of a COVID-19 hotspot.
The agreed definition of a hotspot for a metropolitan area is a three-day rolling average of at least 10 cases.
Mr McGowan targeted Ms Berejiklian for pursuing a suppression strategy while every other state and territory was aiming for elimination.
“Well there’s five states and two territories doing one thing, and one state doing something different, I’d go with the majority,” he said.
“The states and territories that want to eliminate the virus, I think have the right approach; the idea that you tick along with the virus and somehow that is a better model
Australia needs to eliminate COVID-19: McGowan08/01/2021|6min
Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan has enacted a hard border with all of Queensland and says Australia must eliminate COVID-19 entirely.
This comes as Greater Brisbane is set to enter a three day lockdown in response to concerns the mutant strain of the virus from the United Kingdom could enter the community and very quickly spiral out of control.
“We need to eliminate it. We are an island. We need to use our advantages to eliminate the virus,” Mr McGowan said.
“The idea that you keep the virus ticking along, and you close down postcodes or you deal with a cafe or a restaurant here or a suburb there, I don’t think is right.”
PM Scott Morrison Calls Special National Cabinet Meeting Amid UK CCP Virus Variant Outbreak
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced that he contacted state and territory premiers and chief ministers to convene a special National Cabinet meeting to discuss strengthening CCP virus safety protocols around international travel.
“The proposal is to further strengthen the COVID safety of end to end international travel processes (from arrival at Airport of embarkation in the exit country, to final clearance from hotel quarantine in Australia). This is being done particularly in the context of the UK strain,” Morrison wrote on Facebook on Jan. 6.
He said the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee has met every day during the most recent outbreak and discussed their proposal on Jan. 6.
Millions have been left separated from loved ones over Christmas after states slammed their borders shut
Shut downs were imposed on Sunday after NSW reported just 30 new covid cases with all of them linked
New South Wales did not decide to close its border to Victoria until the state recorded 127 new local cases
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said leaders have lost their nerve and clearly do not trust their tracing systems
Ms Berejiklian will hold a crisis cabinet meeting on Wednesday to decide on Christmas Day restrictions
The premier said the government will take a cautious but balanced approach when deciding new measures