NSW eases coronavirus restrictions as US, China, engage in pandemic blame game

Global COVID-19 cases have topped four million, adding about 85,000 daily. Cases numbers might not be accelerating, but there is little sign of an overall decline, either.

EXPLAINING the easing of coronavirus restrictions on Sunday, Premier Gladys Berejiklian said personal vigilance was the key to success: assume that everyone around you has the virus, that you could catch it from anything you touch, and that anyone with a cough, cold, fever or sniffle should behave as if they had the virus, and be tested accordingly.

The new drive-through COVID-19 swabbing station at McDonald Jones Stadium is part of the state's expanded testing regime, which comes at a time when the nation as a whole has reported fewer than 30 cases a day for three weeks straight, with an average over that time of just under 18 cases a day.

As we again feel compelled to point out, Australia's experience - 6939 cases and 97 deaths for a fatality rate of 1.4 per cent - stands in stark contrast with the global position, where the number of cases passed four million at the weekend.

CORONAVIRUS CONTRASTS:

• Hunter New England records first new COVID-19 case in more than a fortnight
  
• Cafes and restaurants, 10 patrons at a time, from Friday
  
• Trump's expert Anthony Fauci in quarantine after contact with a positive case
• Brazil: 150,000 cases, sixth country to top 10,000 deaths
• UK to introduce self-quarantine for airline arrivals (in place since March 15 in Australia)
  

Yesterday the Johns Hopkins University dashboard showed 4,026,729 infections and 279,345 fatalities, a death rate of 6.9 per cent.

The impact on the United States is enormous: 1,309,541 cases and 78,794 deaths give it 32 per cent of the world's cases, 28 per cent of fatalities and a fatality rate of 6 per cent, or four times Australia's.

The geopolitical implications of such a massive hit to the US psyche cannot be under-estimated.

Australia's early call for an independent investigation into the COVID-19 pandemic was the correct one.

But with US President Donald Trump blaming China to deflect criticism for shortcomings in America's domestic response, relations between the two super-powers have deteriorated beyond the strained stand-off that emerged with the US-China trade war.

US daily cases peaked on April 24 at 36,300 but Saturday's total was still 25,600.

A February 2017 article in the journal Nature shows US concerns about Wuhan's now infamous bio-lab did not begin with coronavirus.

• READ THE REPORT IN NATURE HERE

Scientists said early on that the COVID-19 genome supported the wet markets theory, but US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is pumping hard to re-inflate the bio-lab "conspiracy", while the Chinese have their own narrative, blaming the US.

We in Australia should be thankful for our lucky escape.

But the final shape of a post-COVID world - or a world forced to live with the virus - will depend heavily on two nations.

One is our ANZUS ally, the other our largest trading partner, and both are angrier than ever with each other.

ISSUE: 39,602.

Australia's peak for daily cases was on March 28, with 497 cases.

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