So how come Australia is still locked down?

[Teddypops]

So Australia has approx 20 new cases a day and barely no deaths.

So how come they are still locked down?

[sunbunnydownunder]

WA has had one case in 9 days and that was from someone in quarantine from overseas. My kids are back at school for the last week and I am really impressed with the measures they have put in place. Our premier has been amazing and ignores ScoMo for the most part. Alot of the stage 1 measures we have already started, people are mixing freely shops are opening etc. Playgrounds are still shut and kids sports aren't open yet. We are not allowed go between regions and interstate/ international travel is banned. You can only fly out of WA if you are a non resident. All incoming flights are met at the airport and brought straight to a hotel for 2 weeks quarantine.
I am happy overall with how they have handled it, the only issue I had was at the beginning I think they should of shut the schools earlier but we pulled ours out anyway it just meant for the 1st week we had no support with homeschooling.

[ToffeeYoghurt]

Can you Aussies tell me. Do you have many Covid deniers in Australia?
I'm wondering whether the very high UK death rate is partly because so many here refuse to accept we're dealing with a pandemic. Do most Australians accept lockdown was the right thing to do? I've just looked at yet another thread here with loads of Brits insisting over 30,000 dead already is no big deal (apparently there's a bigger picture to look at...) and there's no need whatsoever for any kind of lockdown.

[Easilyanxious]

How long do Australia plan to quarantine all arrivals is that in the phase plans ?

[Mymomsbetterthanyomom]

I'm guessing because they actually care about their citizens!

[Easilyanxious]

Also the reasons some UK want some restrictions lifted is there is also a side to consider the knock on effects to lockdown mh , vunerable children etc
No one here is asking for complete removal just a plan for when a few relaxations can start taking place

[Weenurse]

Anyone arriving from overseas is sent to a hotel for 14 days.
If they then need to fly to another state to get home, they again go to a hotel for 14 days.
There is no plan to open the boarders in the near future, but there are some initial rumbling about an Australian, New Zealand travel hub.
Dan is being cautious as new infections are discovered.
We wait and see.
No virus deniers that I have met. We can see what is happening elsewhere.

[Easilyanxious]

@Weenurse ok that's seems sensible but what if the virus is around for another year ? I'm guessing Australia doesn't rely on much on tourism as some other countries

[SailingAwayIntoSunrise]

@ToffeeYoghurt Australia is used to feeling far away from the world. We are used to watching the news 'over there' and not being apart of it.

We watched what was happening in Italy and Spain and knew it was coming here.

Whereas lots of countries are used to being the news, and it seems those ones have been hit hard for not looking around, outside of themselves.

I think I'm trying to say is that while our numbers are really good, most people believe this is real because we saw what it was doing over there. We
know we've just been lucky so far.

Going into winter worries me. Lack of sunlight to kill the virus and the air changing due to cold making it easier to spread deeper into lungs, I really hope we don't have a spike.

[ToffeeYoghurt]

There's also knock on effects with MH and vulnerable children as a consequence of unchecked Covid spreading (and killing) across the country Easilyanxious
I don't know about Australia but certainly in the UK Covid is disproportionately affecting the deprived more than more than the affluent. That impacts many vulnerable children.

That's interesting to know Weenurse
I'm beginning to wonder if Covid Denial is just a British thing (gun toting US protestors aside).
You Australians clearly have more common sense.

I heard there's talk of a travel bubble between you and NZ. I hope you don't let us Brits in again too soon. Much as I'd love to come you've done very well so far and shouldn't risk it by opening your borders to infected countries.

[LiesHumansTellThemselves]

I don't think we have a long term plan on arrivals just yet. Just (as previously mentioned) talking with NZ about the bubble.

We can't stay like this forever, but as we produce the vast majority of what we need we have more time than many other countries.

I don't think we are more caring or less dumb (we have a couple of covid deniers). I think Australians tend towards 'big picture utilitarianism', so while we can see, acknowledge and dislike the immediate damage to the economy it doesn't take a whole lot of thinking to wonder whether it would be worse for the economy to have a lot of people sick and dying at the same time.

There is a middle path between the US where it is just burning and China where people were welded into their homes.

Having so much more space, a (generally) comfortable population and food security helps a lot as well.

Fingers crossed we get away with this. I feel like we have used the time we bought well in getting the tracing down, giving the hospitals time to prepare and giving the scientists time to work on a treatment (and longer term a vaccine).

Personally, I think the biggest difference is the space and the heat and I am worried about winter. A nice warm wet winter would be great all round.

[timeisnotaline]

We have been lucky re having space helps it not spread, but also we cut off arrivals from China then other countries, then closed the borders quite early which made a huge difference.
Tourism is a big industry and international students are also a serious source of income (& skills). So people are hurting. We have not done the right thing by international students and visa holders and we deserve that to come back to bite us which will hurt universities for the next decade probably. Small towns devastated by bushfires were desperately hoping for an autumn winter boom of (mainly Aussie) tourism and so are doing it very hard. Hopefully people not being able to go overseas means they get a boom once restrictions are released. Right now of course they don’t want strangers, but they must be just so flattened by disaster on disaster. At least there is rain.

[echt]

I think Dan Andrews has played a blinder in Victoria. While restrictions are going to be allowed to be lifted, as per the national cabinet plan, cases are still rising in Vic. though in a very particular hot spot, he will be cautious.

I'm in education and it's been heartening to see how the vast majority of independent (sic) schools spurned ScoMo's bribe to open up and stuck by their premier's rulings. He has been a tosser, turning Covid-19 into a political football.

The travel bubble to the NZ is interesting, and vital for NZ as their tourism is buggered.

Slowly and more surely seems to be the way.

Fingers crossed.

[Ozgirl75]

We do know that cases will slowly rise as the restrictions are lifted but the long lead in times means that we are pretty well prepared in that we have more ventilators, more PPE, better tracing, hospitals well prepared etc.
We also accept (I think) that we may have to have some things re locked down again but also that things like outdoor walks with no one around are a very low, if not negligible risk of infection.

Presumably other countries can learn some things from us too. For example, we have had hairdressers and supermarkets open throughout and as far as I know there haven’t been any clusters of cases linked to these, so maybe other countries couple open some of these things.
I think Australia has found that the vast majority of their cases have come from cruise ships, old people’s homes, hospitals and people giving it to their own families - the risks of passing it on through being at the shop at the same time, or walking along a beach at the same time are so low that we can probably go back to doing those things.
Schools go back this week so it will be interesting to see how that affects numbers.
I think the premiers and the govt have done a great job and the police too have had just the right level of touch.

[Ozgirl75]

My fear is when we open international borders again - my husband and I ate British/Australian and would normally travel to the U.K. 1-2 times a year but we can’t do that for the foreseeable future which is hard, equally I fully accept that the quarantines have probably been the single most effective measure against the spread.

[EagleSqueak]

I came back from the UK the day before everyone arriving had to go to hotels to be quarantined.
I was greeted at an almost deserted Melbourne airport by masked and gloved border officials and fully suited , gowned and masked nurses who took my temperature. I had to give my contact details and phone number. I then had to stay in my room for 14 days away from the rest of my family (who had to provide room service. Payback time for me 😁). I had text messages every day asking about symptoms and reminding me that I had to stay away from others. After 14 days I received a message saying, if I was free of symptoms I could mix with family members again.
It was a bit of a boring time, but I’ve been so impressed with how it’s all been managed really, and without the level of media hype that was going on the the UK from when I arrived in Feb.
I’ve been happy with Dan’s approach too - he’s been measured, calm and sensible. I’m very grateful that I live here.

[Ozgirl75]

Ate=are

[Ozgirl75]

My DH came back from the U.K. about a week before the hotel quarantine started and although he just had to stay at home, he was phoned at the end by the local police to check if he had had symptoms, but in a friendly way.

[EagleSqueak]

Yes, ozgirl, I feel the same. My eldest dd lives in Europe and she’s desperate to come here in August, but I can’t see it happening. It’s really sad.
I usually go back twice a year, but I can’t see it happening anytime soon either. I’d love to go for my Mum’s 80th birthday at Christmas, but we’ve decided that if we can’t get there for that, we’ll try to get there for my parents 60th wedding anniversary next April. I’m happy to do quarantine again if necessary.

[StartupRepair]

I do think having lower population density helps. More people live in a house and fewer people are sharing common entrance spaces etc.

[1300cakes]

Can you Aussies tell me. Do you have many Covid deniers in Australia?

Toffee I'm in Sydney and I feel the spread of opinions is similar to the UK. Some are terrified, some are blase, most are in the middle.

[theBelgranoSisters]

We flew back here to Oz late March and had to self quarantine for 2 weeks..Right up until a few days before we left we were out and about shopping, in restaurants &sightseeing. No-one at the time we were there took it too seriously so it was a massive shock to the system to fly back to a country with hardly any deaths but entering lock down! Im so glad to be back here in Oz where i actually feel like lives matter..watching sky news and chatting to my Brit mates is a shocker.

[NightCzar]

@1300 I'm in Sydney too and I feel surrounded by Coroner obsessives. Every weekend someone near me posts on FB that they saw too many people out, (when they were out) and there's going to be a spike in cases. They keep being wrong. The next few weeks will be really interesting.

I wonder when they'll let non-citizens and permanent residents in. At the moment no one else can enter AU even with quarantine. There's a few working visa holders stuck overseas while all their possessions are in Australia.

[NightCzar]

Haha Corona obsessives. Not Coroner. Interesting my phone picked coroner as a more frequently used alternative!

[LifeIsBrutal]

I think we have a less virulent strain than Europe and America too. But to answer the OP's question I think there are deniers because some people I encounter at the shops don't abide by social distancing rules.

[Easilyanxious]

Really interesting to read about how it’s been handled from actual people that live in these countries and it goes to show what hard decisions countries leaders are facing trying to balance it all. Hopefully for you all this stays at bay over the winter and for all of us that we get on top of this this virus sooner rather than later so the death rates across the world form this drop and the worlds economies can also recover and we can all be free to travel again