International COVID-19 impact will influence Morrison government in reopening Australian economy

COMPETING CURVES: Excerpts from the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus dashboard, showing that global case numbers may have peaked, but there is still a long way to go. GRAPHIC: ACM Editorial Media

AUSTRALIA has done so well in fighting coronavirus that NSW added just five cases in NSW yesterday amid a national total of 12.

Four weeks ago, health authorities were warning that unless the infection rate could be slowed, we were facing the same sort of pandemic pandemonium that had gripped Wuhan before making its destructive way through various global hot-spots.

More than 70 Australians have lost their lives to coronavirus, yet the nation as a whole has dodged a bullet.

Most health experts believe an all-nations total moving towards 190,000 fatalities has seriously understated the real-world impact.

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As our graphic shows, the global infection rate has also slowed and appears be on the way down.

The Johns Hopkins University dashboard shows 74,000 new cases added on Wednesday, which is 24 per cent fewer than the highest daily total of 99,000 new cases recorded on April 12.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is preparing the political ground to restart the economy, despite knowing that a vaccine is a distant hope, and that further flare-ups are likely - if not inevitable - as restrictions are eased.

Which ever way the reopening unfolds, Australia will likely need to retain some major restrictions, especially those governing the movement of goods and people in and out of the country.

Almost every nation is impacted by coronavirus and free travel is now the exception rather than the rule.

That perennial hot-button topic, immigration, means the line between health policy and xenophobia will vary from country to country, and from observer to observer.

Luckily, our isolated status as an island nation has helped protect us from the worst of the pandemic.

Having quickly entered the global top 20 for case numbers, we are now in 43^rd place and falling, down five positions this week.

More than half of the nations above us are still seeing their case numbers increasing, and in some cases rapidly.

Even Singapore, with 10,000 cases and a coronavirus contact-tracing phone app that the PM wants adapted for Australia, has reported its highest numbers this week, at about 1000 infections a day.

Reopening our economy, domestically, may not pose many problems.

But our border policies will be a harder question.

We'll have company, though, because everyone must wrestle with the same equation: how to restart trade and travel without again spreading the virus.

IN A NUTSHELL: Snapshot of national coronavirus statistics from the commonwealth Department of Health

ISSUE: 39,688.

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