Professor Ian Mackay works at the University of Queensland and specialises in virology
A top doctor has declared everyone in Australia will get coronavirus as the government launches a pandemic plan.
Professor Ian Mackay from the University of Queensland said it’s unlikely the deadly virus will ever be contained and all countries should prepare for the worst.
The announcement comes as Prime Minister Scott Morrison told the nation a coronavirus pandemic was ‘very much upon us’ and detailed a plan to stockpile medicines, create fever clinics and lock age-care homes down.
The virology expert said it’s unlikely the COVID-19 virus would ‘go back in its box’.
‘We’re likely to have the virus become what we call an endemic virus, or a virus that’s just with us for life,’ he said, according to The Australian.
‘We already have four of these coronaviruses, mostly causing colds. We get them every year. They peak during winter but they still move around between us during the rest of the year as well. So it’s likely this might become one of those.’
Minister for Health Greg Hunt, Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly give an update on the coronavirus at a press conference
‘At some point in the coming months or years we’re all going to get infected because we’ve all been infected by these other endemic viruses’.
The government’s emergency response plan would allow federal and state governments to contain the virus if there was an outbreak.
The World Health Organisation has not yet formally declared a global pandemic but the prime minister said Australia was effectively operating on the basis there is one.
Scott Morrison on Thursday instructed Health Minister Greg Hunt to identify ‘gaps in capabilities’ within Australia’s state-based health services as they combat the spread of the deadly, flu-like illness from China.
‘We believe that the risk of a pandemic is very much upon us,’ he told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.
‘We need to take the steps necessary to prepare for such a pandemic.’
Australia lays out national coronavirus plan
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said the risk of a global coronavirus pandemic impacting Australia is likely, releasing the government’s Australian Health Management Plan on Thursday.
The government is currently at the ‘Initial action stage’ which includes:
* Health Minister Greg Hunt assumes powers under Biosecurity Act.
* Enhanced border screening measures and communications with incoming travellers.
* Medical stockpiles deployed to states and territories ready for use.
* Potential outbreaks investigated.
* National response coordinated with states and territories.
The declaration of a pandemic by the World Health Organisation or evidence of a large-scale, sustained transmission of the virus in Australia will move the government to a ‘Targeted action stage’, which would see:
* Department of Health coordinating response from National Incident Room.
* Health services surging staff numbers.
* Items from the National Medical Stockpile distributed to health services.
* Consideration of any border or social distancing measures.
* Response could be scaled up or down based on spread of virus.
If infection numbers reach a level that it can be contained by normal healthcare services, government moves to ‘Standdown stage’, which includes:
* Replenishing medical stockpiles.
* Resuming elective or non-urgent medical procedures.
* Monitoring for second wave of virus.
Mr Morrison said that during the past 24 hours, the ‘rate of transmission of the virus outside of China is fundamentally changing the way we need to look at how this issue is being managed here in Australia’.
‘As a result, we’ve agreed today and initiated the implementation of the coronavirus emergency response plan,’ he said.
‘Based on the expert medical advice we have received, there is every indication the world will enter a pandemic phase of the coronavirus.’
Health Minister Greg Hunt warned parliament the ‘arc of the virus’ continues to expand with confirmed first cases reported in Algeria, Brazil, Greece and Pakistan.
‘Against that background, the very clear message for Australians is that we are not immune but we are well prepared,’ he said.
Pedestrian wearing face masks walk past a display promoting the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games on February 26
Two female cruise ship workers put on their face masks as coronavirus fears heighten across the globe
The government extended the ban on travellers entering Australia from China for another week.
The COVID-19 coronavirus has infected more than 82,000 people worldwide since it originated in December at an animal market in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
That included 23 people in Australia.
Cruise ship passengers wearing face masks arrive in Sydney Harbour
Face-mask clad passengers on board The Spectrum of the Seas cruise liner arrived at Sydney Harbour on Thursday, just hours after Australia launched an emergency plan to tackle the coronavirus outbreak.
The Royal Caribbean ship pulled into port with about 30 people on board, many who wore protective masks as they disembarked.
As they stepped onto Australian soil, Prime Minister Scott Morrison told the nation a coronavirus pandemic was ‘very much upon us’.
A Royal Caribbean spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia no guests were on board the ship when it arrived on Thursday.
She said the passengers were crew members sent to Australia to cater for firefighters who will be taken on a free four-day cruise along the country’s east coast starting on Saturday to thank them for their efforts tackling the summer’s bushfires.
The spokeswoman said the ship has not been in China for more than two weeks, exceeding the public health guidelines.
Royal Caribbean earlier this month announced dates for two free cruises open to volunteers who helped battle the bushfire crisis.
The first four-night cruise will leave on Saturday, with the second on March 7. Both will travel north along Australia’s coast before returning to Sydney.
Around 7,000 first responders and their families have booked for the complimentary voyage.
About 30 crew members were brought to Australia on the Spectrum of the Seas, ahead of a free cruise for volunteer firefighters
People are seen taking in the sights of Sydney Harbour on Thursday after The Spectrum of the Seas arrived
One male cruise ship employee wears a face mask as he gets off the Royal Caribbean ship in Sydney on Thursday
But people in some communities have taken matters into their own hands.
The shelves of a Woolworths in the Sydney suburb of Bondi were stripped of medicine, toilet paper and food staples amid rising panic over coronavirus.
Customers were greeted with near empty aisles when they arrived at the supermarket on Thursday night.
The grocery store appeared to be struggling to keep the shelves stocked with paracetamol, toilet paper, tea, milk, pasta, oats and rice crackers.
The shelves of a Woolworths in the Sydney suburb of Bondi were stripped of medicine, toilet paper and food staples amid rising panic over coronavirus
Customers were greeted with near empty aisles when they arrived at the supermarket on Thursday night
Earlier this week, one woman from Queensland’s Gold Coast revealed her family had started breeding fish to eat in case of economic collapse.
Coronavirus has killed more than 2,800 people globally and can cause severe lung damage and trigger multiple organ failure, particularly among the elderly or frail.
In Australia 16 per cent of the population are over 65, compared to just nine per cent in China, where some 2,700 have died.
Coronavirus has killed more than 2,800 people globally and can cause severe lung damage and trigger multiple organ failure
CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA
NEW SOUTH WALES: 4
January 25
- Three men aged 43, 53, and 35 who had recently travelled to China are confirmed to have contracted the disease.
- Two flew in from Wuhan while the other arrived in Sydney from Shenzhen, south China.
- They were treated in isolation at Westmead Hospital
January 27
- A 21-year-old woman is identified as the fourth person to test positive for the illness in NSW.
- The woman, a student at UNSW, flew into Sydney International Airport on flight MU749 on January 23 and presented to the emergency department 24 hours later after developing flu-like symptoms.
VICTORIA: 7
January 25
- A Chinese national aged in his 50s becomes the first confirmed case of the coronavirus in Australia.
- The man flew to Melbourne on China Southern flight CZ321 from Wuhan via Guangzhou on January 19.
- He was quarantined at Monash Hospital in Clayton in Melbourne’s east.
January 29
- A Victorian man in his 60s is diagnosed with the coronavirus.
- He became unwell on January 23 – two days after returning from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak.
- The man was confirmed as positive on January 29 and was subsequently seen by doctors at the Monash Medical Centre.
January 30
- A woman in her 40s is found to have coronavirus.
- She was visiting from China and mostly spent time with her family.
- She is being treated at Royal Melbourne Hospital.
February 1
- A woman in her 20s in Melbourne is found to have the virus
February 22
- Two passengers taken off the Diamond Princess cruise ship test positive
- Third passenger take off the cruise ship tests positive
QUEENSLAND: 8
January 29
- Queensland confirms its first case after a 44-year-old Chinese national was diagnosed with the virus. He is being treated at Gold Coast University Hospital.
January 30
- A 42-year-old Chinese woman who was travelling in the same Wuhan tour group as the 44-year-old man tests positive. She is in Gold Coast University Hospital in stable condition.
February 4
- An eight-year-old boy has been diagnosed coronavirus. He is also from the tour group where the other Queensland cases came from
February 5
- The case was found in a 37-year-old man, who was a member of a group of nine Chinese tourists in quarantine on the Gold Coast
February 6
- A 37-year-old woman has been diagnosed with coronavirus from the same travel group that flew to Queensland from Melbourne on January 27
February 21
- Two Queensland women, aged 54 and 55, tested positive for COVID-19 and will be flown to Brisbane for further treatment.
- A 57-year-old woman from Queensland also tests positive for the virus
SOUTH AUSTRALIA: 3
February 1
- A Chinese couple in their 60s who arrived in Adelaide from Wuhan to visit relatives are confirmed to have coronavirus.
- A 24-year-old woman from South Australia has been transferred to Royal Adelaide Hospital
WESTERN AUSTRALIA: 1
February 21
- A 78-year-old man from Western Australia was transferred to Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth
JAPAN/DARWIN: 22
- 15 Australians were among 219 confirmed cases of the coronavirus contracted on board Diamond Princess cruise ship at Yokohama.
- Seven passengers who were on board the Diamond Princess then tested positive for the coronavirus after arriving at the Manigurr-ma Village Howard Springs facility in Darwin
