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RUBY:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ruby Jones. This is 7am.

All over the world countries are winding back and, in some cases, completely removing their pandemic restrictions, and Australia is following suit.

Recently Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales announced that mask mandates, density limits, and QR check ins would all be abolished.

But there’s debate over whether these changes are based on public health, political pressure or business lobbying.

Today, journalist Hannah Ryan on the global easing of pandemic restrictions, amidst ongoing concern over the Omicron variant.

It’s Monday, February 28.

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RUBY:

Hannah, it's been almost two years since most of us have even thought about getting on a plane, but last week you flew to the UK. So what was it like to leave the country?

HANNAH:

It was mostly good. It was a little scary. I was a little nervous about it because obviously it was something we couldn't do for years. But when I got to Sydney Airport and saw that big departures sign, I got really excited and made someone take a photo of me in front of it.

It just feels very strange to step out into a foreign country and be surrounded by a different accent and all that kind of thing. And even just feeling a little lost and a little out of place, like trying to figure out how to get from A to B and not quite knowing how the public transport system works. I haven't had that sense of displacement and like not fitting in for a while, and even that is quite exciting because it's so novel.

But I have experienced a little bit of Covid culture shock, which I didn't expect, and that started when I went through Heathrow and showed my passport to get into the country. They actually didn't ask to see anything else, even though I had a folder full of documents and my vaccine passport and all that kind of thing.There was no Covid hurdle to get into the country, and then once I stepped out into the streets of London, I noticed that there were far fewer masks than I was used to in Sydney and less checking in.

So it just feels like Covid is a bit of a different situation here. There have been some big news stories about it since I've been here. The Queen getting Covid is a good example of that, but the kind of headlines around case numbers and deaths and those kinds of things that I'm used to in Australia, I just haven't seen them as much since I've arrived in the UK.

RUBY:

Mm ok, so what is the situation, though? What kinds of Covid-19 numbers is the UK seeing at the moment? And I suppose in correlation, what kind of restrictions are in place?

HANNAH:

Yeah, so much like in Australia, the UK saw a huge spike of Omicron cases over the last few months and that peaked a few weeks ago and is now trending down. So they've got over 11,000 people in hospital, and sadly, they're still averaging just over two hundred deaths a day.

But last week, Boris Johnson, the prime minister, announced that the UK would be scrapping their last remaining Covid restrictions as part of this new ‘Living with Covid’ strategy.

Archival tape – Boris Johnson:

“This virus has not gone away, but because of the efforts we've made as a country over the past two years, we can now deal with it in a very different way, moving from government restrictions to personal responsibility.”

RUBY:

Right. So that means there are no restrictions at all anymore.

HANNAH:

That's right. So all of these restrictions were actually supposed to end later in March, but then they were fast tracked.

Archival tape – Boris Johnson:

“From this Thursday, 24th of February, we will end the legal requirement to self isolate following a positive test, and so we will also end self-isolation support payments.”

HANNAH:

As of last Thursday, there were no limits on venue capacity, no mask mandates, no more Covid support payments and no legal requirement to self-isolate if you test positive for Covid, which I think is a big shock.

Archival tape – Boris Johnson:

“Until the 1st of April, we will advise people who test positive to stay at home, but after that, we will encourage people with COVID-19 symptoms to exercise personal responsibility.”

HANNAH:

The government still recommends that people continue to observe safe practices by staying home and wearing masks in densely populated areas, and of course, that individual places like shops can introduce mask restrictions if they want. But there are going to be no fines or legal ramifications for people choosing not to do that.

RUBY:

Right, OK. And so these restrictions, they were supposed to be scrapped in a month's time, so why is it that this was all brought forward?

HANNAH:

Well, in some ways, the UK is following in the footsteps of many other European countries. So Ireland..

Archival tape – Ireland’s Prime Minister:

“It is time to be ourselves again”

HANNAH:

Sweden, France…

Archival tape – France’s Prime Minister (translated):

“The wave linked to Delta is diminishing everywhere…”

HANNAH:

and the Netherlands, they've entered almost all of their pandemic restrictions.

Archival tape – Netherlands’ Prime Minister:

“Between 5am and 10pm almost everything can open…”

HANNAH:

Some still have mask mandates in place, but mostly density limits and venue check ins and other measures like that are all gone. And the reason is that many of these countries now consider Covid to be endemic, and that means they're treating COVID-19 like other endemic diseases like the flu.

But there's something else that a lot of people think could be driving Boris Johnson's decision to end these restrictions early, and that is the huge political scandal that he's involved in right now.

RUBY:

Mm. OK, so tell me more about that, Hannah. What is the scandal about?

HANNAH:

So over the last few weeks and months, it's emerged that while the UK was in the height of lockdown in 2020, Boris Johnson was at a secret party in Downing Street.

Archival tape – Unidentified Reporter #1:

“Some breaking news regarding a party that allegedly took place in the Downing Street garden in May of last year…”

Archival tape – Unidentified Reporter #2:

“The Prime Minister has long said ‘my policy on cake is pro having it and pro eating it’…”

HANNAH:

They're calling it Partygate or Cakegate for the Union Jack cake that Boris and his staffers ate to celebrate his 56th birthday.

Archival tape – Unidentified Reporter #3:

“A group of staff working in No. 10 gathered briefly in the Cabinet Room after a meeting to wish the prime minister a happy birthday…”

HANNAH:

But actually, he didn't just attend a secret party once or even twice.

Archival tape – Unidentified Reporter #4:

“A trio of Covid rule breaking gatherings allegedly held last Christmas across the UK government during lockdown…”

Archival tape – Unidentified Reporter #5:

“40 or 50 people were said to have been crammed cheek by jowl into a medium sized room. It was a Covid nightmare, one source says…”

Archival tape – MP:

“Does the prime minister really expect the country to believe that while people were banned from seeing their loved ones at Christmas last year, it was fine for him and his friends to throw a boozy party in Downing Street?”

HANNAH:

He attended so many secret parties that there's now a police investigation into whether Johnson broke the Coronavirus laws that he himself created.

Archival tape – Unidentified Police #1:

“I can confirm that the Met is now investigating a number of events that took place at Downing Street and Whitehall in the last two years”.

HANNAH:

So he's not in a good place politically right now, and so easing these restrictions is a good way to distract from that scandal.

But at the same time, it's a good way to please the public, who are pretty angry with what's transpired over the last few months and who also are really exhausted after years of enormously challenging lockdowns and other restrictions.

And so thinking about Australia, we are also in the middle of doing kind of a similar thing winding back COVID-19 restrictions. And so it's worth questioning how much of those changes are being driven by public health advice and also thinking about what role politics might be playing in this.

RUBY:

We'll be back after this.

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RUBY:

So, Hannah, we've just been talking about the end of COVID 19 restrictions in the UK and I suppose the political dimensions of that decision, but there is a similar situation unfolding here in Australia, as restrictions begin to ease. So can you just run me through exactly what is changing?

HANNAH:

So last week, Australia finally opened its international borders.

Archival tape – Unidentified Reporter #1:

“After 704 days, Australia has finally reopened to the rest of the world with international tourists welcomed back”

HANNAH:

You don't need to apply for an exemption. You don't need to quarantine. All you need to do to come into the country is to be vaccinated.

Archival tape – Unidentified Reporter #2:

“Residents of Australia's two most populous states are taking major strides towards normality today, with a significant easing of Covid restrictions”

HANNAH:

And at the same time, we've seen a lot of state governments announcing that they will begin further easing COVID restrictions.

Archival tape – QLD Premier:

“Mr Speaker, from 6pm Friday, the 4th of March, masks will no longer be required in most settings.”

HANNAH:

In Queensland, Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced the state will ditch its mask mandate for most indoor settings for workplaces, schools and hospitality venues from this
Friday.

Archival tape – QLD Premier:

“Mr Speaker smiles are back. We can put our masks away.”

HANNAH:

And in Victoria, most restrictions are now gone as well.

Archival tape – Unidentified Reporter #3:

“Good evening, the unpopular indoor face mask mandate will finally be lifted for most Victorians on Friday night.”

HANNAH:

So masks are no longer required. In most settings, people can go back to the office…

Archival tape – Victorian Premier:

“There's literally no rules. We've come a long way.”

HANNAH:

And then in New South Wales, the use of masks and QR codes have been scaled back. And just recently, the government announced that mask rules for students in New South Wales, both primary and secondary schools, will be lifted despite the low vaccination rates among children.

And all of this is coming, while case numbers do continue to be quite high, as Omicron continues to spread. So Australia is still recording roughly 25,000 new cases of the virus each day and dozens of deaths.

RUBY:

Mm ok. And so given that, given the number of new cases of COVID-19 that we're still seeing every day and also the amount of people who are still dying from COVID-19, why is it that governments in Australia are choosing this particular moment to ease restrictions in this way? I wonder to what extent they're relying on health advice or how much this is a political decision made under pressure from various industries.

HANNAH:

I think that we've learned over the last two years or so that there is a range of public health advice at any given time, and to an extent which health advice you go with is a little bit of a political decision always.

So while we have problems with the rollout of the booster programme, almost 95% of people over 16 in Australia are now double vaccinated. And so the government’s are saying that it was always the plan to end mandates and restrictions once most of the population was vaccinated. Of course, that plan was all devised before Omicron emerged and before we were seeing tens of thousands of cases a day and hundreds of hospitalisations. But both the Victorian and Queensland governments are acting in accordance with the health advice they're receiving.

That said, it is hard to ignore the pressure that these governments are also receiving from businesses. So days before Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced that they'd be easing mask restrictions, some of the city's largest employers and the state's business lobbies held a meeting with top bureaucrats, where they argued that it was time to bring Victoria's COVID-19 workplace restrictions into line with those of New South Wales.

So while governments say that they're acting on health advice, there's also no doubt that industry groups like Hospitality, Tourism, Property Councils have been really keen on this and that state governments are feeling the pressure from them.

RUBY:

So, Hannah, it seems like the broad trend here is that restrictions are going to be wound back, albeit at a slightly different pace in the UK versus Australia and that, you know, we will be living with Omicron from here on out and presumably will do the same with whatever the next variant of concern is. So what do you think that means in terms of restrictions going forward and potential future lockdowns?

HANNAH:

So I'm not a betting woman, but if I were, I would put a large sum of money on there not being any more lockdowns in Australia anymore because there just seems to be no goodwill left for future lockdowns and restrictions of that kind of extreme nature.

But at the same time, when you look at Australia compared to the UK, Boris Johnson is basically saying that Covid is over and all restrictions are gone, whereas in Australia, we haven't reached that point yet.

Restrictions are being eased back, but we still have health measures in place, like vaccine mandates, to mitigate the spread of the virus.

So I think that in Australia, everything is going to be a little more tempered, a little more gradual as we wait and see what happens.

RUBY:

Hannah thanks so much for your time today, and enjoy your trip!

HANNAH:

Yeah, well, I'll go join my walking tour of Edinburgh. And you guys enjoy Melbourne.

RUBY:

Thanks bye!

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RUBY:

Also in the news today…

Residents across NSW are being told to prepare for potentially life threatening floods in coming days as a torrential rain system originating in Queensland begins heading south.

Flood warnings are in place across the mid north coast but emergency services have warned that the entire state could be at risk.

And the United States and its allies have launched fresh sanctions targeting Russia including banning some banks from the global SWIFT payments system.

Russia’s central bank has also been banned from accessing its foreign currency reserves.

The increased sanctions are a response to Russia’s military advances in Ukraine.

I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am, see ya tomorrow.

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