Scott Morrison praises NSW as a model for handling coronavirus outbreaks

Scott Morrison says NSW has shown how states can effectively respond to COVID-19 outbreaks without shutting down their economies.

Scott Morrison says NSW and Victoria in particular have advocated for COVID-19 suppression over elimination strategies. Picture: Andrew Taylor

Scott Morrison said NSW had shown the other states and territories how to effectively respond to COVID-19 outbreaks without shutting down their economies, as he conceded the extent of cases in Victoria was “beyond what we would have hoped would have occurred”.

Premiers and chief ministers are being urged to reject an elimination strategy for the coronavirus, which the Prime Minister said was “very risky” because it encouraged complacency but could still result in outbreaks, as with the hotel quarantine in Melbourne.

With a record 317 new cases recorded in Victoria on Thursday and more than 2000 active cases, Mr Morrison said it was essential to get on top of contact tracing in the state, which was why the federal government had offered the support of more than 1000 Australian Defence Force personnel to support the state’s health officers.

“The great risk of an eradication strategy is … if you are overwhelmed by any confidence that comes from it, all you need is one outbreak and it rushes through your community very quickly because people become even more complacent, and so it is a very risky strategy and one that can be very illusory.”

Mr Morrison said NSW and Victoria had been the most supportive in the national cabinet of a suppression strategy to combat the virus.

He used NSW as an example of what states should do when there are coronavirus outbreaks, saying its health officials had moved “incredibly quickly” to investigate the cluster at the Crossroads Hotel in Casula that was likely started by a Melbourne truck driver.

“That demonstrates in NSW how effectively the states can respond to this, and the best protection against the virus is to live with the virus, to live alongside the virus and to open up your economy — you don’t protect your economy by continually shutting things down,” Mr Morrison said.

“That’s what you have to do when things get to the point they have in Victoria. But you can continue to move forward in the way that NSW is demonstrating by building that capability for tracing, for testing and so on, and that’s been quite effective in this case.”

Opposition health spokesman Chris Bowen said if Australia switched from an aggressive suppression strategy to elimination, more lockdowns would be required that went further and harder than what was in place in Melbourne.

“I’m certainly not advocating that,” Mr Bowen told Sky News.