08/27/2021 8:31 PM
Clarín.com
World
Updated 08/27/2021 8:31 PM
The delta variant of the coronavirus, the most contagious so far, jeopardized the "zero contagion" strategy in Australia and New Zealand, which until now had had good results with isolation from abroad and strict confinements.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison met this Friday with the heads of state to study the reopening of the country, despite the increase in infections, which would in fact mean
abandoning the aspiration to eliminate covid-19.
The goal is to achieve between 70 and 80% vaccinations before the end of the year in order to relax travel restrictions and lockdowns, which now affect almost half the country, including the cities of Sydney and Melbourne.
However, there are states such as Queensland and Western Australia that oppose a premature lifting of landfills and the closure of interstate borders or abandon the strategy of zero contagion, as reported by
The Australian Financial Review
.
With more than 47,000 cases and 989 deaths, Australia was less affected than other countries in Europe or America by the pandemic.
But the delta variant caused an acceleration in new cases, which exceeded 1,000 a day on Thursday for the first time.
A coronavirus vaccination center in Canberra, Australia, this Friday.
Photo: EFE
Accelerate vaccination
Morrison has been insisting for several days that the priority now is to
increase the rate of vaccinations
and reduce hospitalizations, since he considers it "highly unlikely" that infections can be reduced to zero.
In an interview last Sunday with the ABC network, he insisted that the confinements were no longer "a sustainable way to fight the virus."
So far more than 6.8 million Australians, or 33% of those over the age of 16 in the country, have received the full course of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The prime minister announced this Friday that adolescents between the ages of 12 and 15 will be able to book an appointment to be vaccinated from September 13.
The government expert panel, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (ATAGI) concluded that Pfizer's vaccine is "safe and effective" for that age group, and recommended including it in the vaccination campaign.
Vaccination is now the Australian government's primary goal in tackling the Delta variant of the coronavirus.
Photo: BLOOMBERG
Opening in New Zealand
The Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, announced this Friday that as of September 1,
the harsh confinement
will be relaxed
due to the pandemic that the country has been facing since last week.
Ardern explained in a press conference that the national alert level will be lowered from 4 to 3, which means that
some businesses will be able to start operating
if personal contacts are avoided while meetings such as weddings and funerals will be allowed with a limit of 10 people.
The measure will apply to the entire territory of New Zealand with the exception of Auckland, the most populous city and the epicenter of the outbreak in the country, and the border region of Northland, which could maintain total confinement for two more weeks, Ardern explained.
The New Zealand government ordered a nationwide lockdown at the beginning of last week after detecting the first local contagion of COVID-19 in six months.
The Prime Minister of New Zealand begins to relax measures against the coronavirus.
Photo: AP
The authorities registered 70 new local infections of covid-19 this Friday, all in Auckland, which brings the total number of cases of this latest outbreak to 347.
Slow-paced immunization
Unlike Australia, the prime minister once again defended that the elimination of covid-19 is still "the best strategy" although she recognized that the delta variant made the pandemic have to be faced differently.
New Zealand, which is one of the developed countries with
the slowest vaccination rate
, had been recognized worldwide for its effective management of the pandemic, which consisted of closing its borders and carrying out hard and early confinements.
Around 20 percent of its five million inhabitants have been vaccinated with the full schedule so far, while accumulating 3,227 cases and 26 deaths from covid-19 since the start of the pandemic.
Source: EFE
CB
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