‘RING OF STEEL’

MELBOURNE: Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has called for a ‘‘ring of steel’’ to be established around Sydney, to contain the city’s growing outbreak.

Andrews agreed with the NSW chief health officer’s assessment that the Sydney outbreak was a national emergency and said NSW had a ‘‘national responsibility’’ to contain it.

‘‘We will finish up with the whole country locked down if we don’t do this properly,’’ he said yesterday.

A ‘‘ring of steel’’, policed by roadblocks and mobile checks, was in place separating Melbourne from regional Victoria during the state’s longest lockdown in 2020.

The death of an 89yearold man yesterday took the NSW tally to 62 and the national death toll to 916.

‘‘There is no doubt that the numbers are not going in the direction we were hoping they would at this stage,’’ NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters.

The premier flagged harsh restrictions would likely extend until October, when the national vaccination rollout ramped up.

NSW would prioritise first doses of the vaccine for younger people in Covid19 hotspots, as it asked other states for more supply of the Pfizer vaccine.

At a national cabinet meeting yesterday, Berejiklian pushed for the national vaccination strategy to refocus on Sydney, particularly the epicentre of the outbreak in the city’s west and southwest.

‘‘In order for us to have our citizens live freely and openly, as well as other states to ensure that their citizens live openly and freely, we need to have a national refocus.’’

NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said extra Pfizer doses would be especially critical in stemming transmission in critical workplaces in the hotspots, which are largely staffed by young people ineligible for the vaccine under the national scheme.

‘‘These workplaces are . . . premises that actually put food on the table for people in Sydney,’’ Dr Chant said.

The Victorian Premier said he doubted vaccine doses destined for Victoria would be sent to NSW.

‘‘We hardly have any allocated to anyone, so the notion of sending it away from here . . . We all have need, and they have been allocated fairly,’’ Andrews said.

The premier made his comments as his state reported 14 new locally acquired Covid19 cases, which are all linked to known outbreaks.

A new Covid19 case was infectious on two Qantaslink flights between Brisbane and western Queensland. Qantas found out one of their flight attendants was infectious on flights between Brisbane and Longreach on July 11.

Pregnant Australian women have been bumped up the priority list for Pfizer vaccines.

Australia’s expert medical advisory group has told a Senate committee pregnant women are now included in phase 1B of the vaccine rollout. — AAP