NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant says the state should prepare for a 'zig and zag' approach to easing the coronavirus restrictions, where certain liberties could be trialled and peeled back if there is a spike in virus cases.
NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant says the state should prepare for a "zig and zag" approach to easing the coronavirus restrictions, where certain liberties could be trialled and peeled back if there is a spike in virus cases.
"Being very clear to the community what schooling looks like in term 2 is clearly something we're working on," she said. "I think we need to give parents – and teachers – confidence that school is a safe environment."Experts will rely heavily on research under way by Professor Kristine Macartney of the National Centre for Immunisation Research to establish "how infectious children are and how much on-spreading they are doing in the community", Dr Chant said.
Doing those things would "give us some flexibility with what approach we take" to restrictions, Dr Chant said. "It's a fact-finding period; it's a reflective period. We're engaging with the modellers, we're looking at what we can do and then we're going to have to chart a course. That course is not going to be a straight-line course.
Powerful figures in the business community and some political interest groups have begun to question the federal government's six-month time frame for the current crop of restrictions, with pleas for the economy to restart sooner despite the public health risks. There are encouraging signs that businesses are adapting to the new era of social distancing and extra hygiene, Dr Chant said. If authorities are confident that those basics will remain in place, they will be more likely to permit some relaxation of restrictions.
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