Australians are being warned the restrictions put in place to contain coronavirus will be in place for many more weeks, despite the nation’s infection curve improving.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison told Seven’s Sunrise program on Tuesday morning that state and federal leaders would meet again this week to discuss when restrictions can be relaxed.
State and federal leaders will meet later this week to discuss when restrictions can be relaxed.
“I do want to caution Australians that we’re not in that phase yet … we’re many weeks away from being in a place like that,”
“You’ve seen in places like Singapore and Sweden and other parts of the world where the virus has just taken off again,” he said.
He said any lifting of restrictions would need to be backed up by a strong health system and even stronger testing regime.
On Tuesday, the number of Australians infected with COVID-19 has risen to 6366 and 61 people have died.
Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy said it was important Australia maintained social distancing measures for the time being, as every single undetected community transmission could infect a lot of people.
“The scale of measures at the moment are something that we clearly do have to review … but it’s not now, it’s within the next few weeks,” he told ABC radio on Monday.
“I think we need to look at all of the data, look at our preparedness, and the national cabinet will be making a lot of decisions about what, if anything, can be relaxed in the coming weeks.”
Professor Murphy said he would be very concerned if social restrictions were relaxed before public hospitals were fully prepared and the country had enough personal protective equipment.
NSW ‘encouraged’ by low number of new infections
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said there had been a major drop in the number of new infections over the Easter long weekend.
In the 24 hours to 8pm on Monday, there were seven new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number since Saturday to just 23. The total number of people infected to date is 2870.
About 150,000 people across the state have been tested.
“Because if you look at other countries in the world … and you look at where they have gone compared to where we have gone, I think we should feel satisfied that we have contained the spread to the extent that we have,” she told reporters on Tuesday morning.
The state’s chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said the testing focus for the remainder of this week are the areas of Penrith, inner west, Liverpool, Randwick, Waverley, Woollahra, Blacktown, Cumberland, Westmead, Ryde, Manning and Lake Macquarie.
“That is because in those areas we have diagnosed identified cases of COVID-19 where there aren’t clear links to clusters and so we want to assure ourselves that there is not broader community transmission occurring in those areas,” she said.
Victoria announces widest testing regime in country
Health minister Jenny Mikakos reported 40 patients with COVID-19 were in hospital with 15 in intensive care while 1118 people had recovered and about 71,000 people had been tested.
“We are announcing that from today, Victoria will have the widest testing criteria in the nation,” she said on Tuesday morning.
“Anybody who has relevant symptoms, a fever, or acute respiratory symptoms will be able to be tested for COVID-19.”
Queensland’s positive tests in single figures
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says, on the advice of the chief health officer, that it is safe for school staff and teachers to return to work and for students to attend school for Term 2 next week.
She confirmed an additional 11 COVID-19 cases had been recorded across the state overnight bringing the total to 998 cases.
Ms Palaszczuk said 74,013 tests had been conducted, five Queenslanders had died from coronavirus while 442 patients had recovered.
Although the daily rate of positive tests had been reduced to single figures, public gathering restrictions would remain.
Meanwhile, treasury modelling released on Tuesday shows Australia’s unemployment rate is expected to nearly double to 10 per cent because of the pandemic.
Mr Morrison said the jobless rate could have been much higher without government support, but acknowledged mass job losses were taking a “heartbreaking” toll.
Meanwhile, the federal government is considering subsidising domestic flights for airlines hammered by the pandemic.
Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham said there were no guarantees international flights would resume by December.
He is encouraging people to take domestic holidays instead once the pandemic subsides.
-with agencies
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