Coronavirus: focus on stopping new wave of illness, says Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy

Chief medical officer Brendan Murphy has given the go-ahead for businesses to refuse service to people who display ‘flu-like symptoms’.

‘The more each individual Australian takes it upon themselves to behave in this new-normal way, the more courageous governments are going to be about relaxing regulations over our careful three-step process’: Brendan Murphy. Picture: AAP

Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy has given the go-ahead for businesses to refuse service to people who display “flu-like symptoms” and for bosses to send home employees who attempt to work while sick, as part of a raft of new measures to prevent a second wave of coronavirus transmission.

Professor Murphy said federal and state governments would turn their focus to public transport and the return to work this week, floating staggered work times as an option to avoid peak-hour transit.

Australia reported an increase of 14 coronavirus cases on Sunday — 10 in Victoria and two each in Queensland and NSW — and no new deaths. The national number of cases is now at 6941, with 6135 recovered. There have been 97 deaths and 14 people still require ventilators in hospital.

Health officials are advising people to speak out if they witness people flouting social-distancing restrictions, to leave shopping centres if they are overcrowded, and not to enter packed elevators, with Professor Murphy stressing the importance of personal responsibility and accountability in helping Australia gradually ease restrictions.

“The more each individual Australian takes it upon themselves to behave in this new-normal way, the more courageous governments are going to be about relaxing regulations over our careful three-step process,” Professor Murphy said.

He said the government would “protect and defend” business owners and bosses who send home employees or turn away customers who present with flu-like symptoms, saying it was their ­“responsibility” to do so.

“If one of your colleagues or an employee or a client turns up, you have every right to say ‘go away, I am not going to let you in, I am not going to treat you’, unless you’re a doctor of course,” Professor Murphy said.

“All of us over our lives have … wanted to soldier on with a cold and a flu-like illness, but we cannot do that anymore.”

He said health officials would meet with public transport authorities on Monday to discuss a blueprint for the return to work.

“One of the most important things is to reduce the density,” Professor Murphy said.

“Social distancing is not ­possible when you are crowded ­together. We are also keen for ­employers and employees to look at staggered start and finish times, as well as asking those who are working from home to continue working from home for the time being.”

Of the 10 new cases in Victoria, one is related to the Cedar Meats abattoir outbreak, one is a returned traveller in mandatory quarantine and eight are still being investigated. Of those eight cases, one is a healthcare worker at the Kyabram and District Hospital in Victoria’s north.

The Cedar Meats abattoir has been the centre of Victoria’s largest coronavirus outbreak, with 76 cases now confirmed.

NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said one of the state’s two new cases was an overseas traveller and the other was a close contact of another known case.

There have been 3053 confirmed cases in NSW, with 105 still being treated by NSW Health.