Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says Australia needs to learn to live with COVID and achieve a balance in the health response to ensure people’s wellbeing is also protected amid a mental health “shadow pandemic”.
“There was set significantly a very different tone in Victoria today and an acceptance by the premier that the state needs to learn to live with COVID, they can’t eliminate the virus,” Mr Frydenberg told Sky News host Paul Murray.
“Delta is more contagious than previous variants and this is the reality that the rest of the world has confronted and Australia needs to confront and that’s why I’ve been saying we need to have an honest conversation with the Australian people.
“They need to know that living with the virus does mean more cases, it does mean people who get seriously ill, particularly the ones who are unvaccinated and tragically it will mean some deaths.
“While we need to do everything … to try to reduce the chance that someone gets COVID because it is a serious illness, at the same time we’ve got to balance that with other health concerns, other health priorities like protecting people’s wellbeing and their mental health.”
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