EPA
The Australian federal government will soon begin paying financial aid to families and businesses hardest hit by the current closure of the greater Sydney, Wollongong, Central Coast and Blue Mountains.
This was announced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, which only confirmed that the “lockdown” in these parts of New South Wales will last longer than July 17, as originally planned.
The lock-up of Sydney and the surrounding area has entered its third week, and as time goes on, there are growing fears that more and more people will lose their jobs, and that the owners of certain small businesses will find themselves in an extremely difficult financial situation.
The pressure on Morrison’s cabinet is therefore increasing day by day, both by the citizens and the Government of New South Wales, but also by the federal opposition, which is increasingly demanding the return of JobKeeper assistance.
However, Federal Treasurer Josh Freidenberg recently rejected such a proposal by his colleague, NSW Treasurer Dominique Perote, emphatically claiming that “JobKeeper will not be renewed.”
Although Freidenberg said on that occasion that only one-time assistance in the so-called “catastrophe situations”, in the amount of 325 and 500 dollars, remains in force. However, now some media from the house “News Corp” have come to the unofficial knowledge that the federal prime minister still has different plans.
According to the “News” website, Morrison has already held talks with NSW Prime Minister Gladys Bereciklian and several ministers in her government. The main topic of their talks was the help that Canberra is preparing for the citizens of Sydney and the surrounding area, but also the financial support that should be announced by the state authorities of New South Wales these days.
According to the idea of the Federal Government, the aid program for the affected population of New South Wales will be far broader than the current one-time aid, for which citizens have to prove that they do not have more than $ 10,000 in savings, which includes assets such as cars and other motor vehicles.
As announced by Morrison, a far larger number of residents of Sydney and the surrounding area, as well as businesses that are suffering losses, will be able to apply for a package of financial support during the “lockdown”.
– It doesn’t matter how much money someone has in the account or who is able to turn some property into cash – said the Prime Minister and thus confirmed that support will be available to a far larger percentage of the population.
Speaking about the necessity of state financial aid, opposition leader Anthony Albanese especially pointed out that the government must do something, because the current crisis is “a direct consequence of the lack of timely reaction of state bodies” that would face the outbreak of a new wave of infection.
He pointed out, above all, the “poorly organized vaccination program”, which led to the fact that Australia is today at the bottom of the list of world countries in terms of the rate of population vaccinated against kovid.
“Lockdown” and after July 17
After health officials who “predicted” a new extension of the locking of Sydney and the surrounding area in the previous days, the continuation of strict restrictions was indicated on Sunday by a member of the cabinet, Gladys Beredjiklian, NSW Treasurer Dominik Perote.
– Restrictions will very likely be prolonged, because the highly contagious delta strain of the virus continues to spread within local communities – said Perote.
The first victim in 2021.
The NSW government confirmed on Sunday that the corona virus took its first life on Australian soil in 2021. A woman in her nineties died on Saturday at a hospital in Liverpool from the effects of covid, just a day after she was determined to be positive for the virus.
According to Prime Minister Beredziklian, the deceased was in close contact with a previously infected young person. She added that it is just a confirmation that when people take risks by not being tested on time or not respecting restrictive measures, they are in fact risking the health and lives of vulnerable people close to them.
The last death from the effects of covid in Australia was recorded in October 2020. The total number of deaths from the corona virus since the beginning of the pandemic in the entire country is now 910.
More and more people in hospitals
New South Wales recorded a record 77 new infections in this wave of the corona virus epidemic on Sunday. According to Prime Minister Beredjiklian, in the coming days, the daily growth is expected to be over a hundred positive, because the infection has started to spread within families and households, primarily in southwest and west Sydney.
The total number of those infected in NSW exceeded 560 on Sunday, of which 52 were in hospital, 15 in intensive care and five on a respirator.
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