New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian has given the clearest single yet the state has given up on any goal of getting Covid-19 case numbers back down to zero. When asked directly if the state could still reach zero, given cases during the last two days had been in the 400s, the Premier on Sunday said eliminating the Delta variant was “near impossible”. “We have to learn to live with it. But the best chance we have to live with it freely and safely is to get the case numbers down as low as possible.”

At his daily case numbers update, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews was even blunter when asked for his assessment on the situation north of the Murray. “There is no way they are going to get to zero,” he said. “They are going to have to vaccinate their way out of this”. On Sunday morning, NSW recorded 415 new cases in the 24 hours to 8pm the previous day.

That’s down on the 466 from the day before but still the second highest number ever recorded in a single day in the state. Four people died over the same period. Statewide, around 24,500 shots were administered with half of the population of NSW having now received at least one vaccination dose. However, with infections still spreading, in parts of western Sydney and around Dubbo particularly, the Premier was pushed on whether zero cases was achievable any more.

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