Coronavirus elimination not realistic before vaccine, says Deputy CMO – Up News Info

Totally eliminating coronavirus from Australia is not a realistic goal until a vaccine has been rolled out, one of Australia’s top doctors has said.
Speaking to the Weekend Today show this morning, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Nick Coatsworth said eliminating COVID-19 would mean no cases for a minimum of four incubation periods of the virus or at least eight weeks.
“That is an unrealistic scenario when there is 12 billion cases and climbing around the world,” he said.
Dr Nick Coatsworth has told the Weekend Today show that totally eliminating COVID-19 from Australia is “not realistic” until a vaccine is rolled out. (Weekend Today)
The comments come after leading epidemiologist Professor Tony Blakely warned of to expect “wave after wave” of COVID-19 if Australia failed to eliminate the virus.
“If we don’t achieve elimination, and we get to suppression, we will have an outbreak again in two months’ , four months’ , six months’ ,” he said.
“It will just keep on going like this until we actually get a vaccine.”
The professor pointed to New Zealand and Taiwan as examples of areas that had successfully eliminated the virus.
Victoria’s COVID-19 cases have surged in the past week as metropolitan Melbourne grapples with a second wave of community transmission. ()
Dr Coatsworth backed this approach today, saying Australia was working to achieve “suppression to the point of elimination”.
This means Australians should expect to see ongoing small clusters moving forward.
“What we are aiming for and what we have achieved in seven out of eight jurisdictions is suppression to the point of elimination, suppression to the point of absence of community transmission,” he said.
“That’s the setting that we believe is the best balance between public health and getting society moving again.”

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