After New Zealand announced new restrictions requiring travellers to be quarantined for 14 days upon entry to the country, there were calls for Australia to follow suit.
But the mandatory quarantine rules would be difficult to implement here and do little to stop the spread, leading health professionals say.
The New Zealand announcement followed measures in Australia to restrict international travel, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison urging citizens on Friday to avoid all non-essential international travel.
Mr Morrison said anyone planning an overseas trip should “consider carefully whether now is the right time”.
This followed travel bans for travellers from Italy, South Korea, Iran and China.
Overnight Saturday, US president Donald Trump extended the country’s travel bans to include the UK and Ireland after earlier closing its borders to the rest of Europe.
In the panic that has spread faster than the virus, Australians have called for the country to lock down all international travel, but this would just kick the can down the road, said virologist Ian Mackay, an associate professor at the University of Queensland’s school of medicine.
“It’s very extreme. There is evidence of travel blocks only delaying the epidemic, they don’t prevent it,” Professor Mackay said.
“It’s not going to stop the virus coming in, because at some point travel will startup. The virus does still get in, you just delay things.
“I don’t want to be the last country in the world left, and we release travel blocks – and then the virus comes in.”
The spread of COVID-19 in the country was inevitable, he said, but slowing it down is essential to save lives.
“We can stop all meetings, all travel, take the China approach, but China still has cases,” Professor Mackay said.
“It’s a fine balance … we don’t want our economy to fall over.”
Australians should expect some disruption, such as schools closing, but should carry on ‘business as usual’ as much of possible – and keep washing their hands, he stressed.
“There will be lots of things we’ll do different. We’re trying to keep people alive, that’s the end game – alive until we can find a drug and prevent it.”
Associate Professor Adam Kamradt-Scott from the Centre for International Security Studies at the University of Sydney said going into complete lockdown would be economically disastrous.
“We can’t ban all international travel unless we want to shut down our economy completely,” Professor Kamradt-Scott said.
“There are important reasons people need to travel. The Australian government is deploying people to neighbouring countries to help them prepare.
“That’s one example of a very legitimate reason for travel to continue.”
In announcing the ban, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said her country would now be among those with the strongest border restrictions in the world.
“Alongside Israel and a small number of Pacific islands who have effectively closed their borders, this decision will mean New Zealand will have the widest ranging and toughest border restrictions of any country in the world,” Ms Ardern said.
Professor Kamradt-Scott said although these measures may help smaller countries, there was no way they could be feasibly implemented in a country the size of Australia.
“It is much smaller, there are fewer points of entry, particularly for international travel. I think it would present a challenge given the number of points of entry Australia has,” he said.
He said Australians should feel confident in the current system, as it was working well.
“Our systems at the moment are working fairly well.”
