The 45th Australian National Cabinet met today (2 July 2021) to discuss, review and make a strategy against the recent outbreak of COVID-19 Delta Variant. The National Cabinet agreed that the plan will consist of four phases (1) Vaccinate, prepare and pilot which is a current phase (2) Post Vaccination Phase (3) Consolidation Phase (4) Final Phase. The details of all these four phases have been released today for media.
Assessing the risk analysis, response of the task force, the details of these four phases as agreed by the national cabinet and Prime Minister Scott Morrison, the Australians must appreciate the commonwealth and state governments for their highly professional strategy against the COVID-19 pandemic in comparison to the rest of the world.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison, addressing the national media today, has announced that as agreed by the national cabinet, Australia will slash international arrival caps cut down to 50 percent until at least next year over fears of a highly contagious Covid-19 called Indian variant or Delta variant. This new variant has plunged 12 million people into lockdown in Australia.
The Government plan is to continue to rollout COVID-19 vaccines and to expand the scale of distribution before the start of the new year. The way the Government and health experts have planned, it is hoped that every Australian will be vaccinated this year. Right now, 7,970,153 doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered, approximately 160,000 doses per day. 30 percent of the Australian adult population have now had the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, including over 50 percent of over 50-years-old and over 70 percent of over 70-years-old.
This is an excellent performance of the Commonwealth and State Governments of Australia against the COVID-19 pandemic compared to many Western countries.
Certainly, it is the Government’s responsibility to welcome all Australians stranded overseas, however, protecting the lives of 25 million Australians from this life-threatening delta variant that spread in Australia through inbound passengers into Australia is equally as important.
I welcome the decision of the Prime Minister and the National Cabinet. The Commonwealth and state governments have done a tremendous job to protect the lives of Australians through strategic lockdown and vaccination plans. It is hoped that all the citizens will be vaccinated by the end of this year. I would like to see this restriction on inbound international travellers maintained until this delta variant has ended or until the entire eligible Australians get the COVID-19 Vaccine.
Syed Atiq ul Hassan,
Editor, Tribune International (Australia)
2 July, 2021
