The COVID curve continues to flatten across our country with state and territory leaders confident of another day of small case numbers.
However all are quick to warn this won’t mean a sudden return to life as we knew it.
Relaxation of the physical distancing rules is in the pipeline with a couple of states, Queensland and Western Australia leading the way.
Schools returning to normal onsite learning is most likely soon.
The Parliaments (Federal and state) may start sitting again next month, but budgets have been pushed back into the second half of the year.
The border lockdowns still have many months to go. And it wouldn’t be a surprise if there are extensions to the travel bans in some regions.
Until there is a vaccine, Australia will see some version of what’s in place now for some time.
If there is a flare-up, we’ve already been told the response will be to lock it down.
To some, the governments’ responses have been quite draconian but when you look at the chaos and mismanagement of the situation of many other western countries over the last four months most of us can see how well we have done to contain the spread.
Certainly if that one mistake regarding the Ruby Princess had not occurred the figures would look even better.
10.5% of national cases and 21 deaths, not to mention at least 36 international cases, so far, can be traced to the ship.
The inquiry into the ship’s uncontrolled disembarking of 2700 passengers currently underway will get to the bottom of this fiasco.
All Australians have been asked to download a Covid tracing app onto their phones.
COVIDSafe recognises other devices with the COVIDSafe app installed and Bluetooth enabled. When the app recognises another user, it notes the date, time, distance and duration of the contact and the other user’s reference code.
The app then helps find close contacts of COVID-19 cases by assisting state and territory health officials to quickly contact people who may have been exposed to the virus.
This has been controversial from a privacy point of view but it seems many are embracing the concept so far. It was only released last night but the uptake has been high.
More information here.
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