According to public health and policy experts, residents of New South Wales (NSW) are at risk and benefit as the state reopens after a 106-day blockade.
Gyms, cafes, restaurants, pools, shops, hairdressers and cosmetologists reopened in New South Wales on Monday as they crossed the 70% double vaccination milestone earlier last week, leaving people more than 5km away from home. You can go to the place.
Professor Jaya Dantas of Curtin University’s School of Population and Health said the relaxation of restrictions marked the beginning of Australia’s learning to “live with the virus.”
“I think it’s a very good move for us to be open. The country is watching how things unfold,” Dantas told AAP.
“The outbreak has transitioned from an epidemic to a pandemic, and in some respects it will be endemic in the coming years.
“We need to learn how to manage it and I believe we can really do it.”
Dantas said high vaccination rates and public health measures were important to control the spread of the infection, but Australia was lagging behind in rapid antigen testing.
“We need full approval for rapid antigen testing across Australia and it needs to be available for free or at low cost in pharmacies,” she said.
Home nasal swabs will be available in Australia starting November 1, but it is unclear how and where they will be incorporated into public health measures in each jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, public transport will return to New South Wales’ Monday-Friday timetable, with an additional 18,000 train, bus and ferry services.
Yale Wong, an honorary associate professor at the Institute of Transportation and Logistics at the University of Sydney, said that the high number of cases is open to “undeveloped areas” and that transportation by public transport remains unresolved. He said there were still problems.
“We need a ventilation plan,” he said. “Public transportation (services) is a limited environment, which is a big problem.”
While cleaning and disinfection measures are “prone to errors and inconsistencies,” Wong said it is difficult to observe the social distance of buses and trains.
He suggested that the government invest in a “standby fleet” as outbreaks on popular transport routes are likely to occur in the coming months.
“We need to make sure that these weak links aren’t there,” he said.
Marc Stears, a professor at the University of Sydney’s Sydney Policy Lab, says that seeing friends and family celebrate, mourn, and catch up has “serious consequences” for mental health.
“Evidence is increasingly showing that social isolation, loneliness, and severance have had really terrible consequences for many,” Stairs said.
He referred to a study published last week at Lancet by Australian and US researchers who found that cases of major depressive and anxiety disorders increased by more than 25% in 204 countries and territories in 2020. ..
While there is much talk about the reopening of large venues, Stears said home visits and small gatherings are just as important for social connectivity.
“We are all naturally anxious and nervous about what will happen, whether the case rate will increase, and whether the hospital will deal with it,” he said.
“These are important concerns, but there is a huge amount of evidence around the world about what happened elsewhere and we are relatively late for the season opener.”
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