Coronavirus: Social-distancing rule lift almost on horizon

Health Minister Greg Hunt has pledged to begin lifting social distancing restrictions ‘wherever we can’ but warned it is ‘not going to happen yet’.

Health Minister Greg Hunt in Canberra on Wednesday. Picture: AAP

Health Minister Greg Hunt has pledged to begin lifting social distancing restrictions “wherever we can’’ but has warned it is “not going to happen yet’’ and the way out of the virus crisis remains a six-month exercise.

Mr Hunt said the Morrison government was working with the medical community to plan an exit strategy but any easing of restrictions would be incremental.

“It is likely to be in steps and stages that we could test and reverse,” he said.

“We've only just entered this period of stability. Now we’re in the suppression phase where we are doing everything we can to track down and to wipe out community-to-community transmission. And then, as we get on top of that and the medical advice is clear, then we will begin to take the steps or the road out.

“We believe that this is a six-month process. That doesn't mean all of the restrictions will be in place and wherever we can, we will look to lift those.”

The number of COVID-19 infections reached 6013 at 3pm Wednesday, a rise of 105 in the previous 24 hours.

Mr Hunt said it was tracking much better than even the best-case scenario at the beginning of the pandemic, when 11.6 per cent of the population, or about three million people, were expected to become infected.

“It’s now well outside our worst-case (scenario),” Mr Hunt said. “When you look at where we are with just under 6000 cases, that is now a different future from the one we were facing.”

“Our biggest risk is two-fold: community transmission and then if people were to stop doing the self-isolation and social distancing measures. These things are making a huge difference.”

Over the past week, there has been an average of 193 new cases reported daily, the majority from NSW, followed by Victoria and Queensland.

The national rate of increase over 24 hours has dropped to 2 per cent, down from 12 per cent one week ago, but the government said it was “too soon to tell whether this trend will be sustained”.

Lifting shutdown restrictions in states that were more advanced in eliminating the coronavirus was lauded by infectious disease epidemiologists as “sensible” after Scott Morrison flagged there would be a series of trials across jurisdictions.

Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein dismissed any move to lift coronavirus restrictions as early as next month but said he hoped his state could emerge first.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said health rules would be reviewed monthly but any easing would depend on health advice.

Ms Berejiklian said more people would get sick and die “every time you relax a restriction”.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews cautioned against easing social distancing laws too early, noting US President Donald Trump had suggested he would end America’s shutdown by Easter but was now presiding over a country where ice rinks were used as mortuaries and New York’s Central Park was a field hospital.

“This fragile position we’re in now, where we have had some stability come to these numbers, we have had clear signs that our strategy is working, we can’t become complacent, we’ve just got to keep all working together,” he said.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk would be no more specific than to say: “(If we) are COVID-19 free six, seven months down the track, we may be able to ease some restrictions.”

Archie Clements, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at Curtin University, said each state had already tailored their response to the pandemic so it made sense to have a tailored approach as restrictions were relaxed.

Mr Hunt labelled Australia’s early closure of its borders to China as “probably the most important measure we’ve taken”, as it had bought the country a huge amount of time to prepare.