Coronavirus: For economy’s sake, NSW won’t shut down

NSW will almost certainly face a flare-up in COVID-19 cases, but officials are ruling out statewide lockdowns.

NSW Minister for Customer Service Victor Dominello. Picture: AAP

NSW will almost certainly face a flare-up in COVID-19 cases of the kind seen in Victoria, but officials are ruling out statewide lockdowns, saying precision targeting of postcodes and suburbs is more likely.

With eyes trained on the Victorian government’s response to the crisis, the NSW government says a mitigation strategy is ­already in place to deal with community transmission outbreaks when they arise.

“No one has suggested that we’re going for an elimination strategy,” said NSW Customer Service Minister Victor Domin­ello, who oversees the digital arm of the NSW government and its collection of COVID-19 data.

Mr Dominello is a strong proponent of using data, collected from across government agencies, to respond rapidly to cases of the virus.

He cited vulnerable communities, such as those with high percentages of frontline workers, or elderly people, as the type that would benefit from proactive messaging. But on quarantines, the only way forward would be “laser-like” responses to preserve the state’s economy.

“We’ve seen that work effectively in relation to school communities,” he said. “Where there is an outbreak in a given school, we didn’t shut down the entire education system, we shut the school for a day or so to implement deep cleaning.”

Earlier this year, NSW was ­responsible for the highest number of COVID-19 cases nationwide. Now it has very few active cases; there are 63 people being treated by NSW Health. In the 24 hours to 8pm on Tuesday there were 14 cases identified but all among people in hotel quarantine.

The number of people being tested also remains high: 16,243 coronavirus tests were conducted during that 24-hour period, and a further 12,950 tests were conducted the day prior.

Coupled with a greater willingness to socially distance and ­employ good hygiene, these ­efforts have been applauded by Mr Dominello and NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian as a sign of community compliance — a vital buffer against community infections.

“We can’t shut down the state again because if we continue to shut down the state then who’s going to pay for the nurses, the teachers?” Mr Dominello said. “It’s about making sure we have these plans in place to respond quickly and locally.”

Localised quarantining measures — Mr Dominello eschews the word “lockdown” — would rely on a slew of triggers. A rapid increase in cases in one community would not necessarily trigger a quarantine response if all cases were traceable to a single source, such as a wedding, he said.

“But if it’s 50 people from various sources that can’t recall where they’ve been, and businesses weren’t recording the names of who came in and out, it makes contact tracing harder,” he said.

“But the response will be as laser-like as humanly possible, so we can ensure the rest of the state can go about its business.”

One potential measure is to close businesses not registered as “COVID-safe”. Currently ­optional, registration ensures these businesses receive real-time feedback from customers on how safe they have made their premises. But even as the state turns to data to track ­potential cases, the data itself has become less reliable in some instances.

In February and March it was mobility data — the movement of people on trains, buses, ferries — that indicated whether masses of people were congregating in specific areas. Now compliance is so strong that the movement of people is no longer a risk of infection.

“That nexus has been broken,” Mr Dominello said.