On May 11, the Prime Minister and state and territory leaders will electronically gather round the virtual national cabinet table to discuss the staged removal of the strict social distancing health restrictions that Scott Morrison initially forecast could remain in place for “at least six months”.

Since the shutdown began six weeks ago, The Australian Financial Review has suggested the best response to the global pandemic would be to aim for a sharp but relatively short shutdown of six to eight weeks to contain the spread of COVID-19 on these shores as fast as possible. Decisive action to avoid the worst-case health disaster that has unfolded in Wuhan, Italy, Spain and New York City was the only responsible option, notwithstanding the enormous cost to the economy, business, jobs and livelihoods. Such a shutdown also would buy time to assess the uncertain trajectory of the novel highly infectious disease, to ramp up the capacity of the health system to cope, to learn how to better treat the disease, to work out how best to trace and deal with outbreaks of infections, and to protect the most vulnerable groups of people, such as the elderly.