'Clear road map out': PM set to announce 'three step plan' to reopen Australia
Coronavirus restrictions will dominate a crucial meeting of federal and state leaders as Australia maps the road out of the pandemic.
National cabinet is meeting this morning to discuss three vital stages that will be rolled out over the next three months involving the assessment of restrictions each four weeks.
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Prime Minister Scott Morrison will chair the meeting, but states get the final say on what measures might be eased as the country awaits news on what the coming months will entail.
Community sport, social gatherings and changes to the retail industry are expected to be the first items on the table to have their restrictions adjusted in Friday’s meeting.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said state governments would make decisions about relaxing restrictions based on case numbers and their unique circumstances.
“What we hope comes out of national cabinet, and what I expect, is a clear road map out, with clear stages,” he said.
Victoria has so far retained the most hardline approach, while NSW has signalled it will also move cautiously, with several active cases in both states.
Queensland is allowing groups of five to visit other houses from Sunday for Mother's Day, with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk framing it as a reward for achieving good infection results.
The NT, WA and SA are among the least restrictive jurisdictions, while Tasmania and the ACT are yet to wind rules back significantly.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton warned the road back to normality would be long, telling Nine “there are tough months to come”, stressing it was important restrictions were eased slowly.
There have been 97 deaths from coronavirus in Australia, while more than 6000 of the 6897 people infected have recovered.
An outbreak at a Melbourne abattoir has been linked to 70 cases but no deaths, while a cluster at a Sydney nursing home has claimed 16 lives.
When will international borders open?
Infectious diseases physician Peter Collignon believes unrestricted overseas travel is still a long way off for Australians, telling Yahoo News Australia significant changes might not be made until late 2021.
“I think international travel is going to be a fair way down the distance,” he said in a Facebook Live Q&A.
Prof Collignon, from the The Australian National University Medical School, said limited international travel may be possible by October this year, but unrestricted was unlikely until October 2021.
“This virus is everywhere around the world, so basically the problem we've got is if you go overseas and come back to Australia, for quite a while you're going to have to go into quarantine for a couple of weeks,” he said.
“There is a lot we still don’t know before we can safely have people going on cruises and going overseas and coming back and reintroducing the virus.”
Prof Collignon suggested the transition back to normal international travel would be a slow one involving many restrictions.
“I think international travel other than really critical business reasons or family reasons is not going to be happening in a big way any time soon,” he said.
“And it’s going to be with restrictions for those who really do need it for family reasons et cetera.”
Is Sweden’s approach appropriate for Australia?
Prof Collignon advised the herd immunity style approach being taken by Sweden, whereby most of the country has remained open, was not suitable for Australia.
He cited how about 3000 of the Scandinavian country’s 10 million people had died, which was no match for Australia where just 97 people had been killed by the virus.
“So they’ve got a much higher death rate – it’s something like 50 times higher the death rate that we’ve had,” he told Yahoo News Australia.
He added that while Australia’s economy had suffered a major blow due to strict lockdowns, it was those restrictions that had saved lives.
“What Australia has done – yes, we’ve probably put more people out of work than Sweden has – but we’ve also stopped an awful lot of deaths,” he said.
“I don’t think we have to follow the New Zealand approach either of locking everybody down for five or six weeks but equally, I’m not sure the Swedish approach is the right approach either.”
With AAP
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