Prime Minister Scott Morrison has warned Australians to prepare for a coronavirus “pandemic” as the government implements an emergency response plan.
Morrison told reporters that there is “every indication the world will soon enter the pandemic phase of the virus”.
He also said that the government is moving ahead of the World Health Organisation and is effectively operating on the idea that a pandemic has been declared.
“In the last 24 hours … the data regarding the rate of transmission of the virus outside of China is fundamentally changing the way we need to now look at how this issue is being managed here in Australia,” he said, according to news.com.au.
“We believe the risk of a global pandemic is very much upon us and as a result as a government we need to take the steps necessary to prepare for such a pandemic.”
Morrison said that bringing in the first phase of the country’s emergency response plan is “being taken in an abundance of caution”.
“We have always acted with an abundance of caution on this issue, and that has put Australia and the strong position we are in to this time in being able to contain the impact of this virus,” he said.
“The actions we are now taking in being prepared even further, is to ensure that we can respond immediately when these, the virus moved to the next level.”
The first phase of the plan includes preparations for extra controls at airports and ports, more quarantine measures and details as to how schools should react to any widespread outbreak.
The travel ban on people coming into Australia from China will also be extended for another week.
Greg Hunt, Minister for Health, said that it’s likely more cases of the coronavirus would hit Australia.
“The likelihood is somewhere sometime there is a further round of cases that may make it to Australia,” he said.
“(If) this becomes a truly global event, a truly global pandemic than it is overwhelmingly likely to have some effect.”
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said that the plan has been activated today and based on the plan that was created for swine flu, which was the last pandemic WHO declared.
“All of the elements that are in that plan, are very similar to our pandemic influenza plan. We learned from the pandemic 10 years ago when we had the swine flu epidemic,” he said.
“We looked at that plan and modified it on the basis what we learnt. Now we know more about this virus, how it spreads, how infectious it is, how likely it is to cause severe illness and in which type of people it may cause severe illness.”
