AS coronavirus numbers in Greater Sydney climb stubbornly higher, Newcastle City Police commander Wayne Humphrey says "one or two" people from within the lockdown area were found trying to enter Wednesday night's Tim Tszyu boxing match.
Detective Superintendent Humphrey is warning of delays at next Wednesday's State of Origin match at McDonald Jones Stadium.
Similar checks should have also been made at last night's match at the stadium between the Rabbitohs and the Cowboys.
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But as confirmed by some 4000 signatures and comments in an online petition to stop Origin III, plenty of people fear the COVID risk is too high a price to pay for a game that cannot wrest the shield from NSW.
Even with the tighter Greater Sydney restrictions from 5pm yesterday, there are justifiable fears that the highly infectious Delta strain will sooner or later slip through the cordon into other parts of the state.
Early praise for Premier Gladys Berejiklian's "lockdown light" is now turning to criticism as the full implications of an extended period of "stay at home" orders make themselves felt.
Limited assistance in place of full-scale JobKeeper is doing little to ease the anger.
A reported split in the NSW Cabinet has exposed a fragility in Ms Berejiklian's rule, as she navigates the difficulties of multicultural messaging with Western Sydney suburbs, and tries to deflect blame from her government without being overly harsh on the federal Coalition.
Ultimately, though, everything in the longer term swings on vaccination rates.
It's easy to be wise in hindsight, but there were obvious reasons, early on, why nations with COVID crises on their hands would take precedence for vaccines that were always going to be in short supply given they were being developed and made from scratch.
Yes, there have been missteps, but the numbers of people wanting to get into Australia at the moment would surely exceed those wanting to leave.
Here in the Hunter, the Belmont vaccination hub scheduled to open on July 19 will lift inoculation rates, especially with younger people, given the initial concentration on the Pfizer jab.
The pandemic is running for longer than many had hoped, and the restrictions weigh heavily on many of us.
But the alternative, with the mass infections that would result, does not bear thinking about.
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