Around 300 military personnel from the Australian Defence Forces (ADF) will be deployed to Sydney from Monday to help its police officials enforce the COVID-19 lockdown after the city recorded a steep rise in infections. Despite a lockdown, Sydney has recorded 239 new cases of the highly infectious Delta variant in the last 24 hours.
The premier of New South Wales (NSW), Gladys Berejiklian, said, “We can only assume that things are likely to get worse before they get better given the number of people infected in the community.”
The soldiers will undergo training over the weekend before being deployed with the police to patrol the streets to ensure that the residents follow COVID-19 restrictions.
NSW Police Minister David Elliott said, “The deployment was necessary because a small minority of people thought the rules didn’t apply to them.” He added, “It’s no different to what we saw in Melbourne last year where the police worked hand in glove with the military to ensure they could have that intelligence-based compliance checks done quickly and swiftly.”
The minister also revealed that the federal government offered military help on July 7, but the NSW government didn’t think it was necessary at that time. However, rising COVID-19 infections, anti-lockdown protests, and the flouting of restrictions have now made military deployment crucial.
Australian Defence Minister Peter Dutton said, “The ADF officers would act as a force multiplier to increase police presence around affected areas.” He added that more than 200 defence personnel are already deployed in parts of the NSW to enforce state police quarantine and support reception and repatriation efforts at hotels and the Sydney airport.
While talking about the enforcement of the lockdown in Sydney, NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said, “The ADF assistance would allow police to double the number of house calls they can make in the eight local government areas (LGAs) of concern.” He added that the soldiers will be deployed with enormous training and discipline and won’t come with firearms.
On the contrary, the mayor of Cumberland, Steve Christou, criticised the NSW’s decision to deploy military troops and referred to the event as a government failure. He said, “The army’s here to defend its people, not to be used against them. To bring them out as a secondary police measure because of the circumstances that the state government has created upon itself is a sign that they’ve lost complete control of this.” Some community groups have also raised objections and called military intervention “heavy-handed.”
Sydney Deploys Military to Help Enforce COVID-19 Lockdown
Around 300 military personnel will patrol the COVID-19 hotspots in New South Wales to enforce lockdown measures amid rising cases and flouting of norms.
July 30, 2021
SOURCE: THE ADVERTISER