NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says hitting Sydney's COVID-19 hotspots with tougher restrictions was the "least-worst option" and potentially saved thousands of lives after announcing the easing of lockdown rules.
Key points:
- Gladys Berejiklian says restrictions can be eased because of high vaccination rates
- All public pools will reopen from next Monday provided councils have a COVID-safe plan
- Ms Berejiklian met with the mayors of the 12 Sydney hotspots last week
The local government areas (LGAs) of concern in western and south-west Sydney are now subjected to most of the same lockdown rules and stay-at-home orders as the rest of Greater Sydney.
The LGAs of Bayside, Blacktown, Burwood, Campbelltown, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield, Georges River, Liverpool, Parramatta, Strathfield, and parts of Penrith had tougher restrictions than the rest of Greater Sydney, including curfews, which were lifted last week.
From today, residents in hotspot LGAs are able to enjoy unlimited recreation and gather outdoors in groups of up to five fully vaccinated adults.
However, the authorised worker conditions and the travel permit requirements will remain in place for those 12 LGAs.
Ms Berejiklian defended her decision to inflict stricter restrictions on the hotspot LGAs.
"I absolutely stand by the approach taken, as difficult as it was because the other option is we always said that we didn't want to burden our citizens unless we absolutely had to, so it was the least-worst option," she said.
"Some of my hardest days in the job are days when you take away people's freedoms, subject them to horrific situations."
The Premier said the decision to ease restrictions was "due in large part to the high rates of vaccination".
"We have seen some of those communities go from rates of around 19 or 20 per cent up to nearly 90 per cent, and this is extremely encouraging.
Ms Berejiklian said the tougher restrictions had prevented thousands of cases and potentially thousands of deaths.
Canterbury-Bankstown Mayor Khal Asfour welcomed the easing of restrictions but said the lockdown "should never have been a tale of two cities".
"Today's announcement is fantastic news for my community," Mr Asfour said.
"My community has always wanted to be treated fairly and equally like the rest of Sydney and we're glad the Premier is finally coming around to agreeing with us.
"This should never have been a tale of two cities, this should have always been about a health crisis and being all in this together."
Mr Asfour said he was grateful to Ms Berejiklian for easing restrictions and that he had been "pleading" with her to make the changes.
Ms Berejiklian last week met with the mayors of the 12 COVID-19 hotspots, with discussions described as a "little bit heated".
Burwood Mayor John Faker said he told the Premier his community felt "frustrated" and "discriminated against".
AAP: Dan Himbrechts
)"My community just wants to be treated fairly. We want the same freedoms as everybody else," Mr Faker said last week.
There was anger among the mayors at people in the eastern suburbs being allowed to go to the beach while public pools were closed.
The Premier yesterday confirmed that all public pools in NSW would reopen from September 27, provided councils had a COVID-safe plan approved by NSW Health.
"These freedoms are really good for the community, we've had the curfew lifted and now we have swimming pools about to open next week," Mr Arfour said.
"Now we've had the exercise and recreation time be equal to everyone else … this is fantastic news for the community."
Cumberland Mayor Steve Christou on Sunday said he had been “banging down the door” of the Premier for the last three months and welcomed the easing of restrictions.
"This is a fantastic outcome for our local community. Essentially, they have been under house arrest for three months," Mr Christou said.
"On Monday when we met with the Premier and she was given a few long-overdue realities.
"There really was a feeling that there was a two-class society developing."
The state yesterday recorded 1,083 new COVID cases and 13 deaths.
NSW Health's Jeremy McAnulty said it was too soon to say if the state had turned a corner in the Delta outbreak, but health data was "encouraging".
"We don't want to jump the gun [but cases] have stabilised and appear to be dropping in some areas where we have had rapidly increasing vaccination uptake as well as good compliance," he said.
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2021-09-19 18:55:13Z
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