Australia

New Zealand wants coronavirus elimination, Australia wants COVID-19 ‘suppression’ — but can we have both?

As the number of coronavirus cases across Australia continues to drop dramatically, some experts, and the community at large, have started exploring that very question.

Yet, the answer is not simple.

Since declaring the pandemic last month, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has stood firm on a “containment and suppression” COVID-19 strategy — with the way out to the “other side” determined by data modelling to make sure the “effective reproduction number” stays below one.

A gradual lifting of social-distancing restrictions would follow broader testing and better contact tracing over the next three weeks, he said, giving medical staff time to prepare for any potential second or third-wave outbreaks.

He stressed Australia was “not in eradication mode”.

This differs from New Zealand’s hard shutdown — which was wound back slightly this week — and elimination policy.

But with the latest statistics showing Australia in a better position than many predicted — and almost on-par with New Zealand’s cases per head of population — some, like Victoria’s Chief Health Officer, have put elimination back on the agenda.