Thousands of people take to the streets of Australia on COVID-19 measures, jabs | Coronavirus Plague News

Thousands of people took to the streets of Australia on Saturday to protest the vaccine against COVID-19, as small groups rallied to help raise the country’s number of vaccines worldwide.

About 85 percent of Australians aged 16 and over have received a coronavirus vaccine since November 19.

Singing “freedom” and carrying placards calling for “anti-violence” and announcing “unchanging lives”, anti-vaccine protesters marched through the streets of central Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city, and many families were immediately overjoyed. Christmas windows show the city’s supermarkets.

There were also protests in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth, with police monitoring the rallies and no reports of unruly behavior.

Australian journalist Dana Morse told Al Jazeera that Melbourne endured the longest in the world.

“There are concerns among the community about the epidemic laws that the government is trying to pass through parliament,” said Morse, who lives in Melbourne.

“The bill was suspended, but people are worried about the amount of power the government will have if the bill passes.”

People are also protesting against the “no jab no job” rules which means people who have not been vaccinated will not be able to continue working, he added.

Protests against the vaccine have been going on for weeks in Australia, sometimes with violence and incitement of civilian groups, as well as supporters of terrorist ideologies and far to the right.

The anti-vaccine group, however, remains small, with elections showing the national opposition in the same number.

“We are looking at a world that believes in safety and the effectiveness of the vaccine when it comes to treating COVID-19,” Morse said.

“While you are looking at the thousands of protests as we have seen in the streets of Melbourne today – a city of five million people – we are talking about a small but very vocal population,” he said of protesters who protested.

Hundreds of protests were held in Melbourne, organized by the Campaign Against Racism & Fascism under the slogan “Do not scab, take a jab”.

One of the organizers of the anti-afascist rallies, Nahui Jimenez, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that the demonstrations were a “message of solidarity” with health workers in the country.

“Many people support health care systems that have helped millions of people to avoid taking COVID,” he said.

The host of the Australian Open tournament, the first Grand Slam tennis tournament and one of Australia’s biggest tournaments, said on Saturday that all players should be vaccinated to compete in the event, which is taking place in Melbourne.

On Saturday, there were 1,166 new cases of COVID-19 in the state of Victoria, of which Melbourne is the capital. Five more people died. The most populous region in New South Wales, where about 92 percent of the population is fully vaccinated, also reported 182 new cases.

Despite the Delta eruption that led to the closure of several months in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia had just 760 confirmed cases and 7.5 deaths per 100,000 people, according to the World Health Organization, the lowest in most developed countries. For example, the United Kingdom has reported more than 14,000 confirmed cases and 211 deaths per 100,000 people.

Neighboring New Zealand, which is also learning to have coronavirus via high-dose vaccines, also reported 172 new cases. As of Friday, 83 percent of Pacific nationals have been vaccinated.