Thread by @DarylTractor

Dr Richard Totaro, co-director of Intensive Care at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, is talking about the burden of Covid patients in ICU. They’re typically in ICU 3+ weeks rather than 3 or 4 days. #nswcovid19

By the time Dr Totaro sees the patients in his ICU they’re typically too unwell to speak.

He’s not being drawn on what kind of numbers hospitals can sustain.

Gladys chips in: it’s not so much the number of cases we have. It’s the number of cases that aren’t vaccinated because they’re ending up in ICU.

I implore somebody to ask Dr Totaro if he thinks NSW should be doing anything else aside from putting all its eggs in the vaccination basket (given the huge lag before that will make a significant difference). It seems like there is a lot being unsaid here.

Chant: We’re working hard to maintain this and “looking at opportunities” to drive the numbers down.

Yikes

Dr Chant says she can’t speculate but suspects good compliance activities, vaccination and lockdown is what CMO Paul Kelly had in mind when suggesting NSW needs a circuit breaker.

FML

Wow. Somebody asked Gladys re the $5 million grant involving Daryl Maguire. She is not impressed. Says the proposition of impropriety is absolutely ridiculous and “proper process” was followed. Next question!

Reporter: is it a serious conflict of interest given you were in a secret relationship with Maguire?

@GladysB: “I refer you to my previous answers. Please respect this press conference.”

@abcnews’ @AshleighRaper intervenes with a different question.

Absolutely pathetic.

Important to note that other journalists were jostling to follow up the questions re the pesky corruption issue when @AshleighRaper decided it was important to change topics.

Oh and 40 minutes into the press conference @GladysB has flagged that cases numbers could still be on the way up.

She is speaking a million miles a minute and desperately avoiding @aclennell’s questions.

Gladys is droning on and on about “freedoms” and having cracks at other states for being quick to put up borders. Journalist rightly asks what is the point of “freedoms” with ever-growing case numbers and inability to travel because other states won’t open to NSW.

That ends another episode of Australia’s most depressing sitcom! Happy lockdown friends!