https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/scott-morrison-promises-no-mo...Scott Morrison promises no more COVID-19 lockdowns
across Australia if he is re-elected in the 2022 Federal Election
The Prime Minister suggested Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese is "keen" to take Australia back to the height of the coronavirus pandemic by plunging the country into lockdowns if case numbers continued to worsen as he made a significant pledge to Australians.
3 min read
May 18, 2022 - 1:53PM
The Prime Minister took the remaining few days of the Federal Election campaign to Geelong on Wednesday where he was quizzed at a press conference about the soaring COVID-19 infections around the country.
Cases in Australia have climbed since the New Year when states and territories dropped their borders after most vaccination targets were achieved.
In recent days, more than 50,000 infections have been recorded each day through testing with an estimated 383,000 active cases around the country.
A reporter asked Mr Morrison what his government's plan was to slow one of the highest transmission rates in the world and to limit further COVID-deaths.
"We have one of the highest COVID transmission rate, we are approaching 6,000 deaths so far this year, was a decision taken that this is an acceptable number, and if not, what are you doing to stop
50 deaths from COVID a day in Australia?" he asked.
Mr Morrison flagged it was inevitable deaths would rise alongside cases but it did not mean the people passing away were dying from coronavirus.
"You will also know that as the number of case numbers has risen and that's what it was always going to happen, as part of the national plan that we put together with the states and territories, the case numbers would rise, and there were some 53,000 case numbers yesterday," he said.
"What you see when you have case numbers of that level is that people when they pass away, from many other causes, they will die with COVID, and their deaths are recorded as COVID deaths but that doesn't necessarily mean, as the premiers themselves have set out, that they passed away because of COVID, that's a very different proposition."