Australia was regarded as a success story in containing Covid-19 in 2020. Australia sealed off its borders to all foreigners and imposed strict quarantine for arrivals. During the first wave of the coronavirus, Australia seems to be inspirational to many Western nations in controlling the pandemic virus.
Everything has changed in Oceania country after one year. Government has continued to impose restrictions in major cities and people also responded against the Australian government. Anti-lockdown protests in Australia turned violent in many cities. Hundreds of people took to the streets who said the lockdown is authoritarian.
Melbourne has witnessed a sixth
lockdown whereas Sydney has faced restrictions since June. Many protesters
defied coronavirus lockdowns to hit the streets of Australia's largest cities,
as the country recorded its highest single-day caseload since the pandemic
began. Sydney’s New South Wales state reported a record 825 new daily community
infections. Not only Sydney, several cities are battling outbreaks of the
deadly Delta variant. Frustration is mounting in Sydney despite being more or
less shut down for eight weeks. What went wrong in Australia in countering the
virus? Implementing Zero-Covid strategy and slow vaccination are two reasons
for not containing the virus.
Most of the protesters don’t have
masks on their faces during the agitation. Zero-Covid strategy is being
challenged by the Delta variant. Australian healthcare officials have said that
they are moving away from the attempt to completely eradicate the coronavirus.
Australia has fully vaccinated just 23% of the population out of the total 25
million people in the country. The vaccine rollout is much lower when compared
to the UK (60.6%) and US. (50.7%). Scott Morrison defended the decision and
said that a ‘one-eyed focus’ on daily cases is not helpful and that lockdowns
are unsustainable.
Comments