Coronavirus: social restrictions slowing the spread

The pace of coronavirus spread continues to slow in the face of tough social restrictions, boosting confidence Australia is flattening the curve.

Brendan Murphy has said, ‘we’re increasingly confident that if people continue to adhere to what we’ve been asking them to do, we can prevent a situation like we’ve seen in many other countries of the world’. Picture: Gary Ramage

The pace of the coronavirus’ spread has continued to slow in the face of tough social restrictions, boosting confidence Australia is flattening the curve.

Data from the states released on Sunday showed another modest uptick in confirmed cases, with the total number across Australia rising by just 139 or around 2.5 per cent to 5687. That is well down on the daily rate of more than 25 per cent just two weeks ago.

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The death toll, however, spiked after NSW authorities confirmed four men had died from the virus.

The men, aged 90, 80, 76 and 61, lifted the toll in NSW to 16. Three were passengers on the Ruby Princess cruise ship, which has emerged as a major source of the outbreak in Australia.

And a fifth Queenslander has died, bringing Australia’s toll to 35.

Queensland Health confirmed on Sunday night the death of a 78-year-old man in Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane’s north.

The man was also a passenger on the Ruby Princess, which since docking in Sydney on March 19 has been linked to 11 deaths and more than 620 cases nationally.

Chief Health Officer Brendan Murphy said the latest figures suggested Australia may be able to avoid its health system being swamped by cases.

“That is probably the lowest rise we’ve had for a few days and it does tend to continue the trend we’ve seen of flattening of the curve,” Professor Murphy said.

“We’re increasingly confident that if people continue to adhere to what we’ve been asking them to do, we can prevent a situation like we’ve seen in many other countries of the world.” He said the focus must now shift to preventing community transmission across the Easter period.

“About 10 per cent of our cases across Australia are those where there is no known contact with ­another case,’’ he said. “They’ve appeared from the community.

“Those are the reason we have brought in the social-distancing measures and all of those measures to stop the spread.

“Easter is a time when people normally travel, get together and have social gatherings and we’re asking you not to do that.”

Former Australian Medical Association president Michael Gannon said there was a sense of waiting on the frontline of hospitals as they prepared for the number of cases to surge. He said while isolation measures appeared to be slowing the spread of the virus, it was far too soon to contemplate lifting ­restrictions. “There’s cause for cautious optimism but there’s certainly no cause for complacency,” he told The Australian.

“We are in the fight of our lives the next few weeks, and if we are successful in the measures we’ve taken, then we are in for a long, long burn.”

While the latest deaths involved older victims, NSW Health’s Jeremy ­McAnulty said more than a quarter of confirmed cases to date involved people aged 29 or less. Three people now in intensive care with the disease are in their 30s. “Young people need to be aware they are not immune from getting severe disease, and they have an important role to play in preventing transfer of the infection to their loved ones,” Dr McAnulty said.

State governments are continuing to introduce further restrictions on movement even as the virus growth rate continues to taper, with Western Australia on Sunday night instituting a hard closure of its border.

Only individuals with an exemption, such as healthcare, emergency and freight workers, will now be able to enter WA.

Premier Mark McGowan said although the infection numbers in recent days were encouraging, people should prepare for up to six months of restrictions.

“I know it might seem like COVID-19 has been going on for a long period of time now, but unfortunately we’ve only just started our battle here in Western Australia,” he said.

“It’s encouraging to see the low number of new cases, but that’s all the more reason for us to stay on course … We are still heading into the storm, not out of it.”