The grim prediction on Sunday was followed by federal Finance Minister Simon Birmingham also speculating other states would keep their borders closed to NSW for “much of the rest of this year”.Mr Elliott was so frank on a number of issues during an interview with Sydney Morning Herald columnist Peter FitzSimons that social media users took to Twitter to ask Fitzsimons if the Q and A was a parody.NCA NewsWire confirmed with Mr Elliott’s office the interview was genuine.Mr Elliott was asked when Greater Sydney could expect to get out of its Covid-19 lockdown, which is due to end on August 28.However, with the state’s daily case numbers hovering around 300, lockdown is likely to be extended.“On current projections, with the line of vaccination rates going up, and if transmission rates come down over the next fortnight, it looks like they’ll meet at a satisfactory level before grand final day in October,” Mr Elliott told SMH, referencing the NRL grand final slated for October 3. “There will be hopefully an easing of some restrictions before then, though.”NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian suggested on Sunday that some restrictions could ease in September – such as face-to-face learning for school students and some workplaces returning – when the state reaches six million doses of Covid-19 vaccinations.Finance Minister Birmingham said on Monday he would “safely assume” other states would keep their borders closed to NSW until vaccination targets had been hit.“I think we can safely assume that other states will remain with closed borders to NSW for much of the rest of this year while we do drive those vaccination rates up into the higher levels,” he told Sky News Australia.“We’re seeing those numbers climb really strongly and I’m confident we will hit targets this year, but quite understandably other states and territories will want to make sure they protect themselves from the Delta outbreak and that’s important in terms of the openness of those economies and communities.”
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