Saving lives and jobs both priorities amid pandemic

Two-thirds of the nation’s nearly 4000 cases of coronavirus were acquired overseas — a statistic that is guiding governments’ moves to minimise further spread of the disease. With thousands more Australians set to fly in this week, the risks of them spreading the disease underline the importance of quarantining all overseas arrivals in city hotels for 14 days, cut off from family, friends and the community. Thousands are already ensconced, which is also helping the embattled hotel industry. Most people, by their behaviour, have shown they understand and accept that no chances can be taken with quarantining and social distancing.

In stark contrast, it is difficult to comprehend the actions of a group of medical professionals who did not go into quarantine when they arrived from Chile on Friday night. The group had been attending a medical conference aboard a cruise liner off the South American coast. The 14-day hotel quarantine had not taken effect at that stage and one of the doctors said on Sunday NSW police officers had told her she could travel on to Melbourne. Even so, surely doctors are the very people who should know better. As Victorian Chief Medical Officer Brett Sutton said of the crowds at St Kilda beach who made a mockery of social-distancing, “really crap” behaviour could lead to “thousands of deaths”.

Compliance by the majority of people, thankfully, is starting to produce a glimmer of hope. Eight days ago, the rate of increase of COVID-19 cases was about 25 to 30 per cent a day. On Sunday morning Scott Morrison said the rate of increase had fallen to about 13 to 15 per cent. There is a long way to go. But the co-operation of the people, which Health Minister Greg Hunt described as “magnificent’’, was having an impact on the spread of the virus. There is no room for complacency. But in Queensland, Health Minister Steven Miles said he was heartened to see “we are flattening the curve’’, with the rate of growth last week half that of the week before, through social distancing and a drop in the number of people returning from overseas. In Sydney, the Berejiklian government has made a good move in asking Police Commissioner Mick Fuller to take charge of NSW’s response to the pandemic. He will co-ordinate the work of police, Australian Border Force and Defence personnel and manage those in quarantine. The crisis has also sparked innovation. A pin prick blood test which can identify if a patient is COVID-19 positive in less than 15 minutes will be rolled out this week by Australian biomedical research company, Cellmid.

On Sunday, Deputy Opposition Leader Richard Marles continued the opposition’s urging of the Morrison government to take even more stringent measures to stop the spread of COVID-19. “Whatever we’re thinking of doing a month from now, let’s do it today, and then that’s got to be the principle,’’ he told Sky News. Logic suggests it would make greater sense to get on top of the problem as quickly as possible rather than to be following the problem up the curve, “ which is what the language of a proportionate response necessarily implies’’, Mr Marles said. We disagree, while acknowledging co-operation between both sides of politics during the crisis.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann’s defence of the government progressively implementing tighter restrictions, medical advice permitting, makes sense. The government will not “start gratuitously shutting down businesses because we are under political pressure”, he told the ABC on Sunday. Nor should it. Senator Cormann, who said “in the end we don’t believe we can stop the spread, we do want to slow the spread’’, posed three key questions for those demanding a more drastic shutdown. First, if the government were to shut the whole economy, when should it open again? Second, what would be the consequences? And third, if it were shut down to the point where nobody moves and the virus completely stops, what would happen when it reopened and the virus began spreading again? Such issues are not simple. Business and union leaders warned last week that Australia risks forever losing its steelmaking capacity and the permanent closure of smelters and refineries in the event of a total economic shutdown. It would be a mistake to think Australia has gone light and slow in the crisis. Dr Nick Coatsworth, one of the nation’s deputy chief medical officers and an infectious disease specialist, pointed out last week that Australia has “gone hard and fast” with unprecedented measures. If harsher strictures are to be avoided, compliance will be vital.

The Morrison government is conscious it is not only managing a health crisis and an economic crisis brought on by the health crisis. It is aware that an economic crisis, the likes of which Australia has not experienced since the Depression, can also wreak havoc with health. “Every day someone is in a job, for just another day, is worth fighting for,’’ the Prime Minister said on Friday. “It matters to the person whose job it is, it matters to the business that has been built by someone over many years.’’ On Sunday, he announced $1.1bn to assist with the health effects — to boost Medicare-subsidised telehealth services and to support mental health and domestic violence services. The initiatives are part of a complex balancing act to ensure the coronavirus cure is not worse than the disease.