The " Lucky " Country !

Australia has long been known as the " lucky country " because good fortune seems to come our way. There is no doubt that we have fared well with this Coronavirus pandemic that is sweeping the world. The figures speak for themselves.   So far just 6675 citizens have contracted the disease and 78 have died and that is across a population that exceeds twenty-five million.   What is even more encouraging is that five thousand patients have caught the disease and made a full recovery.

The reason this is so is because we acted early and boldly.   We simply shut down the business cycle and forced millions out of work.  It was a heavy handed approach to keep people one point five metres apart and promote constant hand washing and other hygiene defences.  Very quickly the infection rate slowed and we are now entering the recovery phase.

The big danger is if people think the crisis is over - and start getting careless. We were spared the disease running out of control simply because the forced isolation reduced the opportunity for infected people to pass the virus on to others.  In particular, the death rate is concentrated on the elderly and those over sixty are most at risk.  We need to retain that defensive wall in care homes and protect our aged where ever they may gather.

Eventually a vaccine will clear the way for crowd scenes and the return of spectator sport but in this early stage we will need to reduce the numbers in shops and retain that strict hygiene protocol.  We can expect new infection clusters and each will necessitate the imposition of local draconian movement restrictions to limit the spread.   We need to accept that in good grace.

Our national economy has taken a big hit.  A promised surplus has morphed into a massive deficit as money has been distributed to ease the burden for those forced out of work and it is essential that we get the country earning again.  Unfortunately, what we know as " normal " means packed public transport and a dense increase in road traffic and that can cause an infection outbreak unless we continue to use good hygiene control.  The need for constant disease testing will continue.

The schools are reopening and it is likely that border restrictions will enable overseas students to return to our universities but the numbers are expected to be lower.  The jobs recovery will proceed slowly as industry gears to full production and some industry segments will recover faster than others.  It is unlikely that closely packed venues like movie theatres will gain popularity until that vaccine becomes a reality.

Australia survived the Coronavirus with flying colours.  Now we face the difficult task of returning to normalcy - whatever that is ?   This has been a watershed moment in our history and Australian life will be very different when the implications of this national shutdown finally settles  !