case total lockdown australias lessons world

#CASE TOTAL LOCKDOWN AUSTRALIAS LESSONS WORLD SERIES#

Holiday plans were ruined, as anyone from greater Sydney was barred from traveling to other states.

#CASE TOTAL LOCKDOWN AUSTRALIAS LESSONS WORLD SERIES#

The strict border rules have caused hardship for many people, including thousands of Australians stranded overseas.īut the evidence of the country’s success has been building for months, and it’s been shaped since December less by a complete absence of the virus than by a series of rapid responses that have quashed small outbreaks.īefore Christmas, it was Sydney’s northern beaches, which were locked down as a few, then a few dozen, cases emerged. The case in Perth illustrates a persistent soft spot - a number of outbreaks have been linked to hotel quarantine, including one in Melbourne late last year that led to a 111-day lockdown. The authorities also listed more than a dozen locations where the security guard might have touched or breathed on someone.Īustralia’s fight against the coronavirus has not been flawless. In the Perth case, contact tracers had already tested the man’s housemates (negative so far) by the time the lockdown was announced and placed them under 14-day quarantine at a state-run facility. Britain and the United States are only now seeking to make quarantine mandatory for people coming from coronavirus hot spots.Īustralia has also maintained a strong system of contact tracing, even as other countries have essentially given up. Australia has strictly limited interstate travel while mandating hotel quarantine for international arrivals since last March. Still, it has taken a number of decisive steps. Mackay said.Īustralia’s geographic isolation offers it one great advantage. “I’m not sure we’re being looked at with enough interest,” Dr. With successful public health, some argue, comes not just wealth and more stable economies but also national pride and the practical expertise that mutating viruses demand.

The center of confidence, if not gravity, continues to shift east, especially as China roars back to life. The region’s middle powers, including New Zealand, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, are essentially getting better at managing the virus while the great powers of the World War II era are getting worse. “Everyone can learn from us, but not all are willing to learn.”Īustralia is just one of several success stories in the Asia-Pacific. “We have a way to save lives, open up our economies and avoid all this fear and hassle,” said Ian Mackay, a virologist at the University of Queensland who developed a multilayered, or “Swiss cheese,” model of pandemic defense that has been widely circulated.

Fewer Australians have died in total (909) than the average number of deaths every day now in Britain and the United States. The contrast with the United States and Europe - sharp at the start of the pandemic - has become even more marked with time. Instead of loneliness and grief or outcries over impingements on their freedom, they’ve gotten used to a routine of short-term pain for collective gain. Ask Australians about the approach, and they might just shrug. The lockdown in Perth and the surrounding area followed similar efforts in Brisbane and Sydney, where a handful of infections led to steep ramp-ups in restrictions, a subdued virus and a rapid return to near normalcy. The speed and severity of the response may be unthinkable to people in the United States or Europe, where far larger outbreaks have often been met with half measures. “Each and every one of us has to do everything we personally can to stop the spread in the community.” “This is a very serious situation,” he said on Sunday as he reported the case, the first one the state of Western Australia had found outside quarantine in almost 10 months.

One case and now the top state leader, Mark McGowan, who is facing an election next month, is calling on his constituents to sacrifice for each other and the nation. One case and now two million people are staying home for at least the next five days. That was all it took for Perth, Australia’s fourth-largest city, to snap into a complete lockdown on Sunday. One young security guard at a quarantine hotel who tested positive for the coronavirus and experienced minor symptoms. Now its model is being applied to Perth, its fourth-largest city.

The country’s short, sharp responses have repeatedly subdued the virus and allowed a return to near normalcy. One Case, Total Lockdown: Australia’s Lessons for a Pandemic World

Case total lockdown australias lessons world