coronavirus case total lockdown lessons world

Offices and restaurants are open across the country, with rules dictating physical distance. “If you work three days now, you can avoid 30 days in the future,” she said.īrisbane is now Covid-normal again, like all of Australia beyond Perth. Annastacia Palaszczuk, the senior officer in Queensland, which also includes Brisbane, announced the lockdown 16 hours after the positive test. It was the first known occurrence of the mutation in the community in Australia, and officials were moving quickly. Authorities also listed more than a dozen places the security guard may have touched or breathed someone.īrisbane followed suit with a brief lockdown in early January after a cleaner in its hotel quarantine system was infected with a highly contagious variant of the virus first identified in the UK. In the Perth case, contact tracers had already tested the man’s roommates (previously negative) when the lockdown was announced and placed them under 14-day quarantine at a government facility. The UK and United States are only now trying to make quarantine mandatory for people from Covid hotspots.Īustralia has also maintained a strong system of contact tracing, although other countries have essentially given up. Australia has severely restricted international travel and has mandated hotel quarantine for international arrivals since last March. Nevertheless, it has taken a number of crucial steps. The geographic isolation of Australia offers a great advantage. “I’m not sure we’re being viewed with enough interest,” said Dr. Some argue that successful public health comes with not only prosperity and more stable economies, but also national pride and the practical expertise that mutating viruses require. The center of trust, if not gravity, continues to shift east, especially as China comes back to life.

Coronavirus case total lockdown lessons world