KEEP FAITH IN VIRUS FIGHT

AHIGHLY infectious UK strain of coronavirus has been discovered in Brisbane.

It’s just one case of a cleaner who had been working in hotel quarantine, but who had travelled through the Queensland capital city while asymptomatic.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk moved quickly to send four local government areas in greater Brisbane into a full lockdown for three days starting at 6pm yesterday.

That’s more than 2 million people spending a long weekend at home for just one positive case.

Some may question if that state government is being too heavy-handed.

State premiers across Australia enforced varied border measures in response, with Tasmania making travellers from Brisbane quarantine for 14 days.

Tellingly, all premiers from all political persuasions were supportive of Ms Palaszczuk’s response. Even Prime Minister Scott Morrison praised Queensland.

On Monday night, the best case scenario is that more than 2 million Queenslanders unnecessarily spent three days in lockdown and that the health advice was over the top. Some may have had holidays delayed or disrupted. The worst case scenario of this strain of coronavirus spreading wildly through Brisbane, then the rest of Australia, is that we all end up in a lengthy lockdown with full hospitals and a spike in deaths.

We only need to look at the current situation in Britain to see the potential.

The strain is 70 per cent more infectious. It has been reported that one in 50 people in England had COVID-19 last week and one in 30 people in private households in London were infected. The government is not taking any chances.

It’s reassuring that national cabinet is considering further measures to reinforce protections at hotel quarantine.

There will be a reduction in international airline travel of 50 per cent and anyone arriving in Australia will need to return a negative test before they depart their country of origin.

There will be mandatory testing for all workers in hotel quarantine, with the government considering daily saliva testing as well as the weekly nasal swab.

It isn’t all bad news though. Tasmanian health authorities are hopeful we’ll soon be able to reopen to Greater Sydney. That state is leading the way in terms of showing Australians how we can learn to live with the virus through superior testing and tracing.

The vaccination program will be rolled out in Australia next month and while it won’t deliver us an immediate silver bullet, it will start guiding us towards a new, less volatile way of life.

New rules and new threats are likely to make people feel despondent. But we implore Tasmanians to keep faith.