Coronavirus: New social order means three’s a crowd

New restrictions only allow two people to gather in public, with older citizens urged to stay at home and kids banned from playgrounds.

Tough new social restrictions will take effect on Monday to fight the spread of COVID-19, with a limit imposed of only two people gathering in public spaces, older citizens urged to stay at home and children banned from playgrounds.

Scott Morrison said any person who could remain at home should and called on Australians to restrict their movements to seeking only essential supplies.

“Don’t gather together in groups. That’s the simple way of putting it. Just don’t do it. It is not helpful,” the Prime Minister said.

Following the national cabinet meeting on Sunday, Mr Morrison said the health advice was that people aged 70 and over should stay at home and self-isolate “for their own protection”.

He said the “strong advice”, which also applies to those aged over 60 with chronic illness and indigenous people aged over 50, was that older Australians needed to “limit contact with others as much as possible”.

The crackdown on outside gatherings from 10 to two people will also include closures of public playgrounds, outside gyms and skate parks from Monday.

Mr Morrison said the health advice was that “you must stay at home” unless people required food and other essential items, and cautioned Australians to shop “as infrequently as possible”.

Other exceptions to the rule include seeking medical care or on compassionate grounds, and for work and education that cannot be done remotely.

NSW and Victoria were expected to “move further” on the two-person gathering rule, with state and territory governments considering new fines and penalties for people who breach the ban.

NSW government officials on Sunday night said the penalty for breaching the new orders would almost certainly be consistent with previous orders issued under the Public Health Act, which if breached can incur an $11,000 fine, six months’ imprisonment, or both, or a $1000 on-the-spot fine issued by police.

The strict new measures have been imposed to further bend the coronavirus curve, with Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy confirming there had been “some early hopeful signs” as the rate of infection reduced.

Following draconian social restrictions, which have led to mass job losses and business closures, the daily infection rate in Australia fell to about 9 per cent on Sunday, down from 25-30 per cent last week.

Professor Murphy said there were now 3978 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Australia, which he said was “much less than some people might have predicted some time ago without mitigation”.

While there had been a “somewhat slowing of the growth” in the curve, Professor Murphy said it was not enough and “we have to slow it further”.

With 1600 returned travellers entering quarantine after arriving at Australian airports on Sunday, the nation’s top health officials remained concerned about community transmission, with pockets of cases in Sydney, Melbourne and southeast Queensland. As families across the country move into self-isolation and keep their children at home this week, Mr Morrison urged them to think differently about they live for the next six months.

“I will give you an example. Our kids are at home now, as are most kids, and Jenny went out yesterday and bought them a whole bunch of jigsaw puzzles. I can assure you over the next few months we will consider those jigsaw puzzles absolutely essential,” he said.

“It is important that parents and families and households can get the things that they need to completely change the way they are going to live for the next six months at least and so what we have done is sought to be practical about these issues.

“People are buying sporting equipment at the moment, gym mats and things like that so they can exercise at home.”

Mr Morrison said those who needed to work, including public servants, needed to observe social-distancing rules, including maintaining 4sq m per person. On the restrictions for older Australians, which follows advice in other countries including Britain, Mr Morrison said it was not a strict rule. “This does not mean they cannot go outside. They can go outside and be accompanied by a support person for the purposes of getting fresh air and recreation, but should limit contact with others as much as possible.”

On the two-person rule, Mr Morrison said family members and people living in a household were exempt. He said the two-person limit was important for those seeking daily exercise, particularly women, who wouldn’t be required to walk on their own.

NSW, Victoria and Queensland are considering expanding the enforcement of social restrictions in hotspot areas, with an expectation in Sydney that shopping centres and other public places could be shut down except for essential stores including supermarkets, bottle shops and pharmacies.

With the COVID-19 death toll rising to 16 on Sunday, premiers urged their communities to not stop what they were doing in order to fight the virus.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the state was planning for the “worst-case scenario” of a coronavirus outbreak and was preparing for the unlikely possibility that field hospitals would need to be set up at the RNA showgrounds in Brisbane, the Brisbane convention centre and other sites around the state.

But Ms Palaszczuk said if the virus progressed at the current rate, those facilities would not be necessary, and the state’s existing public and private hospitals would be able to manage.

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