NSW has a path to follow out of the pandemic lockdowns, with a roadmap for easing restrictions at the 80 per cent double dose target revealed by the Premier today. However, the Central Coast will be treated with special travel restrictions due to the region’s high case numbers and lower vaccination rates.
From the Monday after NSW hits the 80 per cent (aged 16 and over) double dose vaccination target, eased restrictions will allow those who are fully vaccinated to have up to 10 people visit their home, participate in community sport, and access hospitality venues (where drinking while standing up will be allowed indoors). All premises will operate at 1 person per 4sqm indoors, and 1 person per 2sqm outdoors.
CENTRAL COAST TO BE TREATED DIFFERENTLY
However, the Deputy Premier John Barilaro set local heads spinning when he announced that the Central Coast will be treated differently to other regions.
When questioned by CCN about remarkable statements from the Deputy Premier on MMM radio on Monday afternoon Parliamentary Secretary Adam Crouch MP said:
“I can confirm that when the lockdown ends on 11 October, Central Coast residents will not be able to freely travel to other parts of Regional NSW.
Adam Crouch MP
“This is because the Central Coast’s daily COVID-19 case numbers are consistently too high. Our region is recording approximately 30 new COVID-19 cases per day. This is even higher than most local government areas across Sydney.
“Clearly, we are not out of the woods. NSW Health has identified the growing COVID-19 case numbers on the Central Coast and in the Illawarra as two of the most concerning areas in the State.
“If our case numbers decline and if vaccination rates continue to rise between now and 12 October, I will absolutely advocate for this Health decision to be reconsidered. There are currently 38,000 unvaccinated people on the Central Coast and I am urging these people to book an appointment as quickly as possible” said Mr Crouch.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the 80 per cent roadmap will also remove the limit of fully vaccinated guests for weddings and funerals, and remove customer caps for personal services such as hairdressers.
“I know people are counting down the minutes until we reach 70 per cent double dose and the freedoms that will provide, and today we are providing further certainty by announcing the 80 per cent roadmap and future settings,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“Vaccination remains our ticket to freedom so we need to work even harder to get jabs in arms, to help stop the spread, minimise outbreaks and ensure people are protected when we open up.”
Given updated health advice, adjustments have been made to the 70 per cent roadmap. Regional travel will now not be allowed until 80 per cent (fully vaccinated only), and a booking cap has been introduced for hospitality venues of 20 people per booking.
The NSW Government is considering changes to incoming international arrival caps, so more people can return home for Christmas.
“The NSW Government’s 70 per cent roadmap lifts fully vaccinated people out of lockdown and when we reach 80 per cent, restrictions will ease even further,” Mr Barilaro said.
“The key continues to be vaccination rates, so please do not hesitate and book in for your free COVID-19 vaccine today so we can reach these targets as soon as possible.
“I must also clarify that travel between Greater Sydney and regional NSW will only be permitted when the state reaches 80 per cent double dose. This change is necessary to give some regional areas the time they need to increase local vaccination rates.”
Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said the milestone marked a shift in gear for the State’s economic recovery.
“There’s a real sense of optimism returning to our community as our vaccination rates keep climbing and that’s giving businesses the confidence they need to reopen and for people to start returning to work and getting their lives back on track,” Mr Perrottet said.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard thanked the people of NSW for their sacrifices.
“Our health workers continue to rely on people to make smart choices, to keep a safe distance, not go to work when they are feeling unwell and to get tested when they show the slightest of symptoms.
“It’s that dedication which allows us to ease some of the restrictions again and to begin the process of opening up the state,” Mr Hazzard said.
The roadmap may be fine-tuned by NSW Health as we monitor the COVID-19 situation over the coming weeks.
From 1 December further changes will be introduced including all venues moving to the 2sqm rule, masks will not be required indoors at offices, indoor pools and nightclubs can reopen, and unvaccinated people will have greater freedoms.
Verified information source: Media release: NSW Premier’s Department. Media statement Adam Crouch MP, Sept 27, 2021
What’s new .a lot of central coast residents believe they are different to other regions.they travel in and out of Syd Newy etc for work.
Just get vaccinated,move on.🤗
Perhaps Central Coast is lagging behind on vaccination is because we didn’t get proper hubs to get vaccinated at. The closest one was 45mins away at Belmont and the Pfizer doses were all redirect to Sydney. Which left me no choice but to get AZ at my GP, despite being in the under 40s recommendation of getting Pfizer and clogging up their system for regular patients and general health services. I now wait a month before I can see my GP for general issues, because of them having to take up the slack for the government not putting more services on the coast.
All my friends in Sydney got Pfizer and bookings within a week and seemingly endless options of locations to pick from.
Once again the current government screwed the central coast.
Let’s analyse where these case number are being generated, most of us are doing the right thing so just fence-off the areas where the drop-kicks don’t give a damn and leave them to their doom.
I’m double vaxxed my mum is double vaxxed no cases at Kandos at all , because they are with Mudgee council stupid , I should be able to go see her.I am on central coast.
Same Jamie, my mum & dad are both doubled vaxxed as am I. They live on the central coast & I live in Lake Macquarie 25 mins away & I can’t see them! My dad turns 90 years old on 16.10.21. I don’t want to miss this milestone. I’m with you, it’s stupid.
We get double dose vaccinated as encouraged by the premier. We do the right thing and follow the rules and for what ? The anti vaxxers will be laughing at us. If we have had both jabs why are we treated differently?
more pity than laughter. We told you it was a trick. It was a faustian bargain and they’re not even keeping up their end of it.
Perhaps the people of The Coast are aware of the corrupt nature of the state government policy of bowing to big pharma in exchange for silence in regards to charges that should be layer against the premier. WAKE up
Yesterday at ALDI Umina Beach:
2 x unmasked customers (both early 20s)
Shopping as couples; breaking 1 shopper per household rule.
Not asked to manually check-in when checkout person asked if they had checked in, and they said “NO”.
No wonder our case numbers are so high
I’m in shock we have been fully vaccinated for months & so looking forward to Oct 11th now I read we will still have restrictions. To those causing this issue my goodness get yourself organised. We are missing out because of you, Please make an appointment & get vaccinated. It’s a tiny prick I hurt myself more with a sewing needle.
All fully vaccinated will come out of lockdown at 70%. There is no reason that should be any different for us on the Central Coast.
I don’t live on the Central Coast but my daughter and family do. I find this latest update so unfair as I know there are so many Sydney residents visiting the Central Coast, holiday homes and coming to the beaches despite the rules. Police have been notified on various occasions and were not interested in enforcing the rules. These idiots from Sydney are bringing the virus with them and the poor Central Coast residents have to pay the price.
This government keep showing it incompetency, now blame us for they stupidity of taken the vaccines from the central coast and sent them to Sydney and no provide enough vaccine hubs and now it’s our fault. IMCOMPETENTS..🤔🤔😠😠😡
You are allowing anti vaxxers not to get vaccinated as they know they will have the same rights as vaccinated.where are your brains certainly not in your head.
This is bullshit !!
We have done the right thing and got vaccinated, we even travelled down to Sydney to get our Pfizer shots and now your telling us and moving the goal posts again ..
We want to see our families
We would not be in this position if the Govt did better at stopping people from affected areas leaving & infecting regional areas. We went months without a case then Sydney people came up & stuffed it for all areas now infected & being screwed.
Every thing about this Pandemic started in Sydney, when the government allowed the Ruby Princess to off load its infected passengers. Where was Brad Hazard when all this was going on sitting at home having a couple of scotches. No report from the government, no penalties on Princess Lines. This so called government is and has been a disgrace. Time for Central Coasties to get rid of them.
It is ridiculous. We were seperated from greater sydney. Should never have been part. Now we are regional. The central coast is huge. No cases near me. Im kept from my children, grand babies n parents. Get more pfizer and our vacination will be up.
People travel over 50= 60 ks to get their vacination. Then thier are waits longer than the edn of october for local people.
We have a premier who is an out and out liar. And a deputy that has no balls. It’s time they were removed from office and investigated.
Yes I’ve noticed this for quite some time now. She’s made so many bad consecutive decisions and that’s an understatement. When is the next election?!
I rang a local health clinic for Phyzer.As I can’t have Az they said January is our next booking.
Yet the government wants to rang about people getting Vaccinated.
It’s a joke trying to get Phyzer up here.
Lockdown, what Lockdown. The peninsula looks like any normal day, next to no mask wearing, no wonder numbers are rising. Walking the path close to beach does not keep you safe, masks were to be worn except for physical exercise not for a stroll, they’ll soon complain when we are kept in lockdown. This policy is the way the country decided to deal with the pandemic, like the rest of the world so only way out now is get vaccinated and follow the directive.
We will be the next SW Sydney. pathetic.
NSW government has been defeatead by the Anti Vaxers by declaring the Central Coast as a non Regional area once again minority groups run the country all of us double vaccinated people have been treated like rubbish
The government has no control a good example is persons using the escape clause to look at real estate example now is Port Macquarie
Anti Vaxers are laughing at us so let us all laugh at the next election
Just get the jab get the numbers up and think of of others not just yourself.move on for freedom.
I am told that the Pastors of a Church have told their members to not under any circumstances take the Vaccines. Meanwhile people are dying from the virus following the wrong advice potentially. I would urge everyone not vaccinated to talk to doctors, nurses and the staff at medical clinics about their fears. They will realise how much more danger they would be in if they caught Covid compared to a slight headache fixed with one Panadol after AstraZeneca. And most have no side effects at. I made those enquiries and realised it was a No Brainer. It was great! I wish I had it done earlier
The Central Coast for me most part have been doing the right thing all along. Now that the virus is here, after being in lockdown for 1/4 of a year, being brought here by those in hot spots, now we get punished even more. I can tell you this, The current Premier will not have my vote in the next election.
I am 76 and have had two doses of AstraZeneca. I have voted Liberal consistently for over 50years but as a result of this draconian decision I will never do so again. Enough is enough!. I won’t vote for the Labour Party but First Nation or the Liberal Democrats. I encourage other Lib/Nat voters to do the same
The fact is that cases are soaring on the Central Coast at about 30 a day. We are looking at 700 cases on the weekend and we are worse than parts of Sydney. 38,000 people on the Coast are not Vaccinated!!! It is not safe now and people will die due to spreading. Talk to Doctors! Wake Up !
A good friend works in ICU she is a very experienced Nurse in Sydney. She said to me a week ago “ This Delta variant is so powerful and makes people really sick. I worked in the icu last week and it’s horrible to see people suffer like that especially when it could have been prevented with the vaccine”
This morning the NSW Government said the Central Coast now has 677 cases and 23 new cases overnight
We have the Prime Minister for Sydney, and the Premier for Sydney. Aren’t we lucky! We, along with all the other regions in NSW, don’t count. We are a dumping ground for the excess masses from Sydney, without the infrastructure to cope. We are the “extra supplies” of Pfizer for Sydneysiders who did the wrong thing and spread the virus to all and sundry. We are the area that puts up with all the aggressive yobs from
Sydney that come up here every summer, towing their jetskis and taking over Ettalong
foreshore and parklands. I, for one, have had enough. I will remember at the next state and federal elections the vision of Scomo in a floral shirt in Hawaii while Australia burned, and I will remember the look on my daughter’s face when her long-booked Pfizer shot was taken from her and redirected to Sydney. I will remember!!!!!!
Totally ageee, vaccinations were taken back to Sydney, no vax hubs.. no surprise the vaccinated numbers are down. I look forward to farewelling the good Mr Crouch in the next election. And jetskis! That’s the latest virus to deal with.
Yesterday I was waiting at a local GP where pfizer vaccine were being given to young people. I did observe that several of the patients were not from the local area. Young people in my
family have to wait 2 weeks for Pfizer vaccine. Why is this possible. Seems this area is disadvantaged.
What an absolute ball’s up! Being treated like this is not on! Glady’s, you called us Greater Sydney to lock us up! You called us Regional to steal our vaccinations, now you lump us back with Sydney to stop us from travelling, but you continually allow people from Sydney to invade our beautiful shores with no regard for the health orders. You say we have low vaccination levels and yet, you put us further at risk by allowing visitors. Wake up, we’ll never get out of this mess with this nonsense decision.. I am beyond livid with this stupidity and lack of fair treatment on the Central Coast! #enoughisenough #sickofit #wearenotsydney
To be frank. Try stopping the double vaccinated not having the same freedoms as others come October 11th or whatever the date is supposed to be. I imagine there will be plenty of people thinking enough is enough and taking up the same ‘liberties’ as Greater Sydney folk. Not the easiest situation to police
Not worth a large fine if travelling to a region from the Central Coast in breach of the health orders.
People should always do the right thing and obey the health orders, “for the greater good”. A phone call to Services NSW Covid hotline can clear up any confusion as to what the health orders are.
I, fully vaccinated, want to travel several hundred kms to another region to visit family as soon as given the green light to do so.
I’m all for rebelling, waving my Eureka (Stockade) flag, and reciting the oath the miners did in 1854 standing around the flagpole:
“We swear by the Southern Cross to stand truly by each other and fight to defend our rights and liberties”.
I won’t be rebelling against the travel health orders as I believe the govt has introduced them in good faith so as not to spread Covid Delta to country towns unnecessarily.
I can wait a few weeks, “for the greater good”.
So many from the Central Coast were left having to travel to Sydney and run the covid gauntlet just to be able to get vaccinations as availability on the Central Coast just hasn’t been available, so what do they expect.
Even on the covid registration booking site being registered for vaccination, checking constantly and waiting, ringing the phone number a couple of times a week and just sitting in Review status for over 3 months (since the lockdowns began in fact) and still not getting a booking to be able to have first vaccination; so its the fault of the system and procedures put in place by the government, not the people.
Start placing the blame where it actually belongs!!!!!
Obviously there isn’t enough vaccines in Australia. Maybe we’ll all be vaccinated Eadter 2022.
Gladys,you lied when you said that at 70% people could visit regional areas, but now you have shifted the goalposts to 80%. You can’t even lie straight in bed. I have been double vaccinated since early August and I will never vote for you.
First we get lumped in with Sydney with months of no cases with Sydney siders free to just travel here.
Then our vaccines get directed to Sydney cause we’re regional
Then cases start rising in Newcastle at the same time as the coast so we get unlumped from Sydney.
Now we’re Sydney again even though cases in Newcastle are just as bad though they are A-OK to travel.
This just needs to stop and the government needs to get consistent. I live just right on the edge of the central coast and have basically been punished with no real cause for months.
The only place I could find for vaccines was in Newcastle btw. Nothing in central coast.
This government is the definition of incompetence.
I agree with ALL of your comments fellow Coasties. I am sick of all the lies these Liberal politicians are telling us and changing the goal posts every other day sickens me. I will NEVER vote Liberal ever again and either will
my family. I want and demand my freedom. I have been double vaxed for months and done the right thing , thinking of others. I’m SO tired of these power hungry morons. !!!
The rules for people visiting their holiday homes are not being enforced. A huge number of people are coming and going between homes in Sydney and Killcare. The rules are easily bent and permits are issued to those who really have no honest reason for being here.
Liberals to the T, the coast didn’t vote for them so no money for council amalgamation and redirected Pfizer allocation to Sydney year 12 students not at any risk. She even said this is how she wants to operate and openly advocated for pork barrel governance.
Gladys, you have destroyed the central coast financially and now you have allowed untold number of people to come from hot spots of Sydney to spread this virus. We appear to be in a Russian state with decisions made and we have no right of reply.
LEST WE FORGET
I am constantly astounded at the trouble people project about obtaining vaccination.My partner and I are both double dosed AZ through our GP and jabs were 12 weeks apart.
Last Saturday after my 18 yr grandson again said he could not get an appointment for Pfizer until 18/10/21, I went on the Hotdoc app and got him an appointment that day for a jab at Lake Munmorah vac clinic, booked it and an hour later he had received his first Pfizer jab, and his follow up 23/10/21 was automatically sent to me for confirmation.
I suggest that all these people moaning about lack of availability try the HOTDOC app, you can check every day for appointments, takes 5 minutes of your time, less than the time to type your complaint.
Stop blaming the government for your choice to not get off your arse and get an appointment when you were first told to, if you had got off your backside then, the Central Coast would not have had these case numbers.
Personally, I wish they would make the Hawkesbury River bridge, Wiseman’s ferry, Windsor bridge etc, border closure points, and use as many police/ soldiers as necessary to enforce the lockdown rules on every vehicle.
The unvaccinated should be kept to current lockdown rules indefinitely unless they have gained natural immunity. This would prevent further serious outbreaks. Alternatively, give the unvaccinated anti-vacas a quarantine area where they can go and catch Covid,then stay there till well, giving them the so called “natural immunity” they wish for, they would then be allowed to move about with no restrictions. No burden on the health system, as they believe they will not get very sick, for they are young and in good health, so we will not need to waste time and public monies treating them, they will be on their own. If they do get sick and die, well that is one less oxygen thief.