Australian National University’s Professor Peter Collignon says Victoria is carrying out a strategy of elimination which may work in the short term but is not sustainable over the medium term.
His comments come after Premier Daniel Andrews extended Melbourne’s harsh stage four lockdown as part of his roadmap to recovery. The premier said the state would return to a COVID normal state on November 23 if there were no cases for 28 days, and no active cases in the state.
“The real problem with elimination is you’ve got to have a vaccine that is 90 per cent effective if you want to sustain it for respiratory disease,” Mr Collignon told Sky News host Peta Credlin. “You may achieve it in the short term, … but to sustain it is very difficult because it’s so easy for the virus to be reintroduced and spread.” Mr Collignon said Victoria's contact tracing "isn't as good" as New South Wales's system.
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