It's hard to believe it's only five days since NSW's COVID-19 response was called the "gold standard" and a full-on lockdown seemed unlikely.
For a government that has made avoiding lockdowns a point of pride, the economic recovery evident in last week’s state budget allowed New South Wales to boast even more about its approach to the pandemic.
“Gold standard testing, tracing, quarantine,” Treasurer Dominic Perrottet exclaimed while delivering his speech in parliament on Tuesday.
And he pointed out that the NSW government had kept “our way of life more free” than other states.
That was five days ago.
A day after the budget, on Wednesday, the mood in the government had changed and tough restrictions came into force as the number of COVID cases linked to a Bondi cluster grew.
Residents in seven local government areas in Sydney had their movements restricted and were effectively barred from entering Queensland, New Zealand, South Australia, Western Australia and Victoria.
Yet some in the government — including Health Minister Brad Hazzard — were adamant there was no need to consider a lockdown.
Then on Friday residents in four Sydney local government areas were locked down for seven days.
As numbers grew daily, the concern increased to almost panic yesterday and Greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Central Coast, Wollongong, and Shellharbour were put into a two-week lockdown.
And whatever side of the argument people fall on, now that it’s in place, the question is: why wasn’t the lockdown introduced sooner?
The Premier is adamant the delay wasn’t political.
ABC News: Tim Swanston
)“Can I say very, very strongly any success New South Wales has had to date is because our government to the letter followed the health advice,” Gladys Berejiklian said.
“I’m not someone who will be afraid to take any decision we need to keep our citizens safe.”
But now she has to eat humble pie.
Ms Berejiklian has been forthright in her criticism of other states for shutting down while holding her own government up as the model to manage outbreaks.
What she didn’t factor in was the Delta strain.
It’s so contagious that it doesn’t matter how good the contact tracers are at their jobs, the only way to get on top of this current outbreak is to severely restrict people's movements.
At the moment, the Premier has the cover of a crisis.
Millions are locked down and thousands are in isolation after being potentially exposed to the virus.
People are scared, anxious and losing money.
The focus is on managing the immediate crisis.
But soon that will shift to how NSW ended up in this situation.
Ms Berejiklian has claimed credit in the good times and now in the bad, she can’t simply say she was following advice.
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2021-06-27 05:21:42Z
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