DESPITE growing concern across NSW and Victoria, in particular, yesterday's National Cabinet meeting resolved to leave things as open as possible over the Christmas holiday period, leaving the Scott Morrison/Dominic Perrottet mantra of "personal responsibility" in place as the new touchstone of COVID policymaking.
The Newcastle cluster and subsequent new peaks of cases in Sydney have had the general public and experts alike questioning the "learning to live with COVID" stance that began in NSW after the departure of Gladys Berejiklian.
But after yesterday's National Cabinet, the prime minister was determined to bat off questions about any gap between the political settings and the health advice by repeatedly saying that mask wearing in all indoor settings was "highly recommended" whether it was mandated or not.
Voluntary masks and a drive on booster shots - helped along by an extra $10 a shot to doctors and pharmacies - are the two main planks of the Commonwealth response.
As the Perrottet government appears in lockstep with Canberra, that means the "light touch" governance - which some would say allowed Omicron to gain the hold that it has - will remain.
The looser policies have certainly allowed people to move more freely - including interstate and in and out of the country - but the inevitable result has been to spread the virus more quickly, and more widely.
The sheer speed of Omicron through The Argyle House and NEX Newcastle rooms in a single night showed how easily it moves from person to person.
Once the contacts of those who test positive are considered, the number of people forced to isolate - with resulting downstream impacts on other families and workplaces - becomes substantially larger.
NSW Minister Brad Hazzard said yesterday that 1364 NSW Health workers were in isolation, the majority as contacts rather than COVID cases.
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Hospitality - a big employer of young people - has also been hard hit.
Mr Morrison yesterday promised a new uniform national set of case contact definitions would be put to the next National Cabinet meeting for approval.
With February the next planned meeting, the present confusion over "casual" and "close" contacts will remain with us these COVID-dominated holidays.
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