He may be saying that now to encourage people to get vaccinated, but if the cost of restrictions don‘t outweigh the benefits vaccination rates reach say 90% fully vaccinated, when will they? How long can they justify getting the pub owners, the retail shop owners, the hairdressers etc. to put an extra staff member on to check vaccination status?
The how long will probably be largely determined by the proportion, and numbers, of unvaccinated Covid patients that continue to present in the hospitals.
While that remains too high, which it currently is, then restrictions are likely to remain until as you have indicated a suitable double vaccinated rate is achieved. What that rate is time will tell.
Note that not all businesses will require a dedicated Covid Marshall at the door who needs to be hired for just that sole purpose. ie Hairdressers.
I had lunch with my daughter on Sunday. Her ward which is now looking after post-Covid patients is now full of Covid patients who are "recovered" in the sense that that are no longer infectious and the virus is no longer active in their bodies. But they either are just too debilitated from their time in the ICU to be able to be discharged. Brain fog and so cannot concentrate or perform daily tasks and/or are just too physically weak. Many are bed-ridden and cannot walk, or have a wide range of medical problems induced by having Covid which now need treated and managed. Many just cannot communicate at all well or not at all, and that complicates the task of caring for them, and this lack of interchange also makes the role of caring less enjoyable and satisfying.
Meanwhile the whole hospital is disrupted and many wards are not doing what they normally would. Many normal patients are not being seen, though acute and serious cases still are being dealt with.
On a personal level the work is very hard. Constant high level PPE, difficulty in taking breaks and keeping hydrated. Much of the day to day fun stuff that people do as part of their normal working lives is simply not possible at present. With all the staff movements, some of my daughter's colleagues she has never seen without a mask.
A fortnight ago my SIL who is a paraplegic was an emergency admission to ICU with a collapsed lung and other complications. Her post ICU Ward was on Monday converted to a Covid Ward and she was moved to different facility to recover and be treated for another 6 weeks. So she is one of the lucky ones in that her care can continue un-impeded.
I know that I am biased, but I personally have no problem with limiting what the unvaccinated can do for a period until their numbers greatly decrease from what they currently are. It is a "carrot" to get vaccinated, a "reward" for those that got vaccinated as well as control measure to slow down spread.
Supply was a problem. The primary care delivery channel was also problem in Victoria till sadly until about now in mid-October, but it should now have the capacity that it should have had months ago. So with both supply and capacity now both improved vaccination rates have climbed and each day now marches towards 90/90- which is not that far away.
