As Greater Sydney's COVID-19 lockdown enters its seventh week, thousands of year 12 students from eight coronavirus-hit council areas in western and southwestern Sydney will get a Pfizer vaccine jab.
Starting on Monday, the mass vaccination push will continue all week at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney Olympic Park until the 24,000 students are vaccinated.
NSW Health vaccinated almost 2000 supermarket and food distribution workers with AstraZeneca on a day it dubbed "Super Sunday" at the vaccination hub at Sydney Olympic Park.
It's normally home to concerts, basketball, wrestling, motocross and the Easter Show, but now @qudosbankarena is being transformed into the biggest mass vaccination hub in the state to vaccinate 24,000 eligible year 12 students next week 💉💪
— Western Sydney Health (@WestSydHealth) August 7, 2021
SEE INSIDE👇https://t.co/SEYCVix3Yg
Meanwhile, 12 suburbs in the Penrith local government are now subject to tougher lockdown rules as COVID-19 continues its spread west.
Residents in the far western fringe of Sydney will be living under the same restrictions that apply to eight other local government areas in the COVID hotspots.
Overnight NSW Health issued alerts for dozens of COVID exposure sites, including five venues in Tamworth in the New England region.
Meanwhile, Premier Gladys Berejiklian is copping friendly fire over the decision to make vaccinations mandatory for tradies and construction workers.
Backbencher Tanya Davies, whose western Sydney electorate takes in those living with tightened restrictions, issued a statement on Monday objecting to the "no jab no job" rule introduced on the weekend for her constituents who are tradies.
"Employees should not be forced into COVID-19 vaccination. This is an assault on an individuals' freedoms and civil liberties," she said.
"The people of western Sydney are being discriminated against, penalised and treated like second class citizens based on their vaccination status."
Ms Davies said she was "leading the campaign to legislate that there can be no blanket mandate for COVID-19 vaccinations and to ensure that nobody will be discriminated against based on their COVID-19 vaccination status".
Small Business Minister Damien Tudehope has admitted that Services NSW has been swamped by applications from businesses requesting emergency financial help.
Just 44,000 small businesses had been paid from about 193,000 applicants so all applications were now being automatically paid, he said.
"What we've done is freed up the process to make sure that we automatically process the grants. We will worry about the fraud later," he told Sydney radio 2GB on Monday.
Meanwhile , the HSC students getting the Pfizer vaccine this week from the eight council hotspot areas won't be returning to the classroom from August 16, as was originally intended.
Year 12 students from other parts of Sydney will return to school on August 16 but all school assessments and trial HSC exams will take place remotely.
We are thrilled that the first day at the @qudosbankarena is fully booked with almost 3,000 year 12 students set to receive their COVID-19 vaccinations tomorrow 💉💪
— Western Sydney Health (@WestSydHealth) August 8, 2021
There are 24,000 first-dose vaccination appointments available this week for eligible year 12 students! https://t.co/RM9YzGJwAp
NSW recorded 262 new local COVID-19 cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Saturday, at least 72 of which were in the community while infectious.
The outbreak has killed at least 28 people.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Sunday reiterated vaccination was the primary means by which to bring the pandemic to an end.
While NSW could not consider returning to pre-pandemic freedoms until it reached 70 per cent vaccination coverage, Ms Berejiklian said some restrictions could be eased with a 50 per cent rate.
© AAP 2021
Image Credit: Phil Roeder / Flickr