World 27.2 million South Africa 630K+ Mexico 630K+
Everyone is hoping that things will be back to normal by Christmas. Sir Scott Moron has been calling for state borders to be reopened, but he has no power to make the states comply.
At the National Cabinet meeting on Friday most states agreed to ‘aim’ to open their borders by Christmas, but that doesn’t mean it will happen. It still depends on case numbers and each state will have the final say. WA and QLD have already opted out of the federal plan and are setting their own benchmarks for opening.
There is no doubt that border closures have stopped the spread of the virus, so any re-opening needs to be managed very carefully. It would be just awful if the extra freedom of movement over the Christmas holidays lead to a third wave.
Melbourne now has the longest lockdown of any city in the world. No doubt this will lead to more angst across the community and to protests. Some people are saying we are now living in a ‘police state’. But police would not be needed to manage protests if there were no protests to manage. Yes, the rules are tough, but frankly, I would much rather be living in a city that has virtually no virus, than anywhere else in the world, and that is the goal.
I’m hopeful that the number of daily infections will come down more quickly than the modelling suggests. We may end up eliminating the virus totally.
From September 28 in Melbourne, subject to average daily cases between 30 and 50 in the two weeks prior, some restrictions will be eased.
Today’s figures are encouraging. There were 41 cases recorded in the past 24 hours.