
When you actually crunch the numbers, it's hard to comprehend.
Sydney and Parramatta - LGA's with similar population sizes - have had almost the same number of COVID cases in the last four weeks.
According to NSW Health, Sydney, which has a slightly smaller population than Parramatta, has 1018 cases. Parramatta has 1054.
In Paramatta, 49.9% of the population is double-dose vaccinated. Only 40.5% are in the city.
And yet only one of these Sydney LGAs is considered "of concern."
It's yet another chapter in the 'Tale of Two Cities' we're seeing play out in the NSW capital.
As Mayor of Canterbury Bankstown Khal Asfour told ABC's Q&A last night, "One gets arrested when they're grieving. The other gets to sunbake. It doesn't make any sense."
Watch Mr Asfour on the ABC. Post continues after video.
He was referring to a case in Rookwood, in western Sydney, where funeral mourners were arrested for exceeding the 10-person gathering limits. Meanwhile, beaches in the east were filled with thousands of Sydneysiders last weekend enjoying some balmy Spring temperatures.
Shadow Minister for Families and Social Services Linda Burney agreed.
"What I'm hearing from people — and I've had a lot of interaction with individuals, including Khal over the last week or so — there is an absolute feeling of two cities," Ms Burney said.
"One where you see people going to the beach. And another where you've got helicopters flying over you with loud speakers. And that's the reality."
Channel Ten journalist Antoinette Lattouf wrote about the divide for Mamamia in August. A vast majority of her large Lebanese family live in the west and south-west of Sydney.
Her WhatsApp chat has looked like this the past few months:
"Why are they treating us like this?"
"Isn’t this discrimination?"
"How come people in the east are still allowed to go and get Botox but we are locked up and can’t work to put food on the table?"
"Why does the media talk about us like we’re stupid?"
Because the 'Tale of Two Cities' has been bubbling away since the very beginning of the current Delta outbreak.
The variant popped up in Bondi in mid-June. And yet it took weeks for the NSW government to enforce restrictions, let alone a lockdown. As it grew and spread to the west, the clampdown there was swift and hard. It's remained as so, while the original epicentre - the east - has enjoyed milder and gentler restrictions throughout the entirety of the outbreak.
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