Death rate may be lower, says Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy

There could be many more unreported coronavirus cases, says Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy.

Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy appears at a Senate estimates hearing at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: AAP

There could be double or triple the more than 90,000 known cases of coronavirus around the world, ­according to Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy, meaning the mortality rate may be much lower in places such as China’s Hubei province.

Appearing at a series of Senate estimates hearings at Parliament House on Wednesday, Dr Murphy said the death rate in Hubei province — where the virus originated — was at 3 per cent but in other parts of the world it was less than 1 per cent.

He said there would be a number of undiagnosed cases in Hubei province and people with mild symptoms were probably unlikely to present to authorities.

In Italy and South Korea, the occurrences of coronavirus increased because the disease was infecting people for weeks before it was identified.

As the number of countries with significant outbreaks of coronavirus increases, with Ukraine and Morocco now among at least 78 nations with the disease, Dr Murphy said Australia was preparing for more cases but there was no evidence of widespread transmissions at this stage.

“We’re trying to reassure people that removing lavatory paper from the shelves probably isn’t a proportionate or sensible thing to do,” he said.

The biggest concern was keeping the disease out of isolated communities as infection “could have pretty devastating consequences”.

“We are likely to put in a range of much more advanced protective measures than we would for other parts of the community, particularly focusing on FIFO workers,” Dr Murphy said.

He also revealed Australia might not have enough personal protective equipment such as face masks under the “worst case scenario” but a procurement plan was focused on getting enough items “for every eventuality”.

 

Under questioning from former Greens leader Richard Di ­Natale, the Chief Medical Officer — who will take over as secretary of the Department of Health — said Christmas Island might be used again if there was another group of people who needed ­quarantining.

Australians were evacuated from Wuhan, in Hubei Province, and quarantined on Christmas ­Island and at the ­Manigurr-­Ma work camp in Howard Springs near Darwin.

Asked whether he had concerns about Christmas Island being used by the government for quarantining a large number of people, Dr Murphy said: “No, because the facility where the people were isolated was appropriated, they were able to be cohorted and the benefit of it was it was so easily stood up.

“From a public health point of view, as long as the quarantining is capable and services can be provided to people, I’m fairly ambivalent about it.”

Christmas Island is now empty and on standby.