CORONA VIRUS RESTRICTIONS

Still a fair way to go

May 2020

The National Cabinet met last Friday to review the progress of the measures in relation to the COVID 19 pandemic and to take further decisions for the coming weeks.

The Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy provided an update on the measures underway, the latest data and medical advice in relation to COVID-19.

There are over 6,670 confirmed cases in Australia and sadly 78 people have died.

According to a statement sent to the Greek Tribune by the office of Prime Minister Scott Morrison, it is clear that the suppression strategy for the virus is working.

National Cabinet again noted data that confirms the measures put in place to suppress the virus have largely been successful in slowing and reversing the growth of cases in Australia, to ensure our health system has the capability to manage the epidemic.

Australians will have to live with coronavirus restrictions for at least the next few weeks, as Prime Minister Scott Morrison said earlier, as the Government begins to chart a path out of the measures.

However, Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy at a press conference with Prime Minister Scott Morrison, last Friday, said that social distancing measures did not need to be followed in schools.

"We think the community risk of having children together in a classroom is low," he said.

TRIBUTE TO ANZAC DAY

In the same statement sent to the Greek Tribune, Prime Minister Scott Morrison pays tribute to the heros who sacrificed their lives on ANZAC Day.

"Across Australia, there are hundreds of thousands of veterans and servicemen and women who have sacrificed much for our country – and along the walls of the Australian War Memorial are the names of 102,000 men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country".

"While war and pandemic are very different, they both require enormous sacrifices of citizens" the PM said.

"This Anzac Day, Australia faces the most difficult circumstances since the Second World War. The circumstances before us cause us to look to past generations and ask "how did they do it?" and "what can we learn from them for our own times?"

The PM also made reference to the outbreak of the Spanish Flu here in Australia, only one year after the return of the Anzacs at the end of the First World War.

"It is estimated that pandemic affected almost 40 per cent of the population in Australia and took 15,000 lives.

At their recent meeting, National Cabinet also passed a motion of condolence to the four Victorian police officers killed in the line of service in Melbourne last week.

National Cabinet will meet again on 1 May 2020.