Why is COVID-19 testing not mandatory for returned travellers?
The nation’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Michael Kidd, is correct. The resurgence in COVID-19 cases in Victoria is a concern, but it is not a second wave of the pandemic. Australia, fortunately, largely escaped a first wave compared with most of the world. But Victoria’s biggest single-day rise in infections for more than 12 weeks — 49 new infections reported on Sunday after 41 on Saturday — is a wake-up call. As Professor Kidd says, Australians who have not downloaded the COVIDSafe app should do so.
The Andrews government is right to insist that travellers quarantining in hotels will spend an extra 10 days locked down if they refuse to take COVID-19 tests.
Such selfishness is intolerable and it beggars belief that such testing has not been mandatory until now. It should be, in all states.
The advent of saliva tests, as opposed to slightly uncomfortable nasal tests, should assist the process. The testing and tracing blitz under way in the hardest-hit areas of Melbourne is on track.
If, as Premier Daniel Andrews suggested on Sunday, stay-at-home orders are imposed on the most at-risk suburbs, these should be for as short a time as practical, tightly centred and closely monitored.
A sharp, effective lockdown to contain mini-outbreaks might prevent wider interruptions in opening up the rest of the Victorian economy and those of other states. If successful, such stay-at-home orders could serve as a model for when other, fresh outbreaks of coronavirus arise, which is inevitable.
While Mr Andrews is being unnecessarily coy about the link between an Eid family celebration and one of the outbreaks in Melbourne, he has no reason to be. All citizens must be held accountable for social distancing and other precautions.
The NSW-Victorian border remains open, as it should, but NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has urged NSW residents to avoid Melbourne and for NSW organisations to exclude visitors from hotspots. Fair enough. It would be reasonable for Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia to take the same approach. But further postponing their border openings would be a costly own goal.
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