OUR SAY: NSW road map not driven by region's vaccine experience

Many of the freedoms made available from October 11 to fully vaccinated Sydneysiders were the restrictions regional NSW residents already lived under.

So once these activities, for example, visiting cafes, pubs, churches and gyms, became off-limits to those not double-dosed, life in fact became a little less free if your home lay outside the metro areas.

No one begrudges people's release from months of lockdown, but had the NSW government considered the consequences further afield?

This past week, we've heard about Albury businesses required to refuse customers and copping abuse on the spot or via social media.

The Border Mail is also aware of people not able to attend church, being turned away from social sport and barred from entering the gym they visited just a day before.

So get vaccinated, you say. But it's not always that simple.

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After the widespread and well-documented problems at the start of the roll-out came examples of regional doses being diverted to Sydney students and cancelled appointments owing to shipments simply not arriving.

Our region had been free of COVID-19 for most of the pandemic, a blessing overall but perhaps creating some ongoing impacts.

No doubt complacency has played a part in people delaying their first doses and now finding themselves limited while they wait for the second.

As well, inconsistent messaging and complicated processes early on did not encourage people to make the jab a priority.

It's a temporary situation, you say, with NSW achieving 80 per cent of the population fully vaccinated on the weekend.

But Border COVID case numbers are growing.

And the vaccine percentages in local government areas like Albury, Federation, Greater Hume and Edward River don't yet match the statewide results.

We hope these regions can quickly catch up as more restrictions ease and the traffic flow between city and country increases.

Otherwise the consequences in case numbers and severity could far outweigh any inconvenience since "Freedom Day".

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