Coronavirus: National three-month lockdown ‘the best option’

The head of think tank the Grattan Institute has called for a national lockdown of up to 12 weeks to contain COVID-19.

Professor John Daley, Chief Executive Officer, Grattan Institute is arguing for a national lockdown. Picture: David Geraghty

The head of think tank the Grattan Institute has called for a national lockdown of up to 12 weeks to contain COVID-19, arguing it’s the best option to support society and the economy.

While acknowledging it wouldn’t “be pretty”, John Daley says it is a more plausible response than the current strategies of “flattening the curve” of the epidemic through social distancing, quarantine of those exposed, isolation of the infected and tracking their contacts.

The “end game” to stop then restart national life would build on the federal government’s move to seal Australia’s borders by minimising activity and interactions, Professor Daley said.

He said only essential services such as the food supply chain, power and water utilities and the internet would be kept going.

Schools, universities, public transport and non-essential retail should be closed. People would be confined to home as much as possible.

Mr Daley said police should “visibly enforce” the lockdown and instead of home isolation for those with mild disease, everyone with COVID-19 would go to government-controlled facilities. “This might seem unimaginable, but it is exactly what has already happened in China, South Korea and Italy,” Mr Daley wrote on website the Conversation.

Scott Morrison and the premiers, acting on medical advice, insist that school closures and the measures flagged today by PM Boris Johnson in Britain to shutter pubs, bars, clubs, cafes and restaurants are not yet necessary here.

But Mr Daley said a lockdown would give business a plausible end date to the disruption.

The duration would be eight weeks, with provision to be extended for 12 weeks.

“That relativity short duration would enable governments to intervene better to hold society and the economy together,” he says. “The government’s strategy would focus on providing a large social insurance policy that tides people and businesses over until the shutdown ends.

“The goal would be to ensure we emerged out of the trough with human and physical capital and institutions in good shape. We need to avoid deskilling and demoralising workers and destroying businesses that will not be reborn easily.”