Living with COVID-19: Planning policy for the next stage

Citation

Andrew Black, Gareth Bryant, Angus Dawson, Gwendolyn L Gilbert, Ben Marais, Emma McBryde

Published online 7 May 2020 at at https://www.sydney.edu.au/content/dam/corporate/documents/sydney-policy-lab/living-with-covid-19.pdf

Australia appears poised to relax some of its most stringent social distancing requirements in the coming days and weeks. Unlike most other countries, however, it does so against the backdrop of few active COVID-19 cases and apparently limited community transmission. This is an admirable achievement.

The next stage in Australia’s battle against COVID-19, however, remains difficult and uncertain.

Activity in recent months has been fixated on the paramount task of limiting national caseloads and preventing overload of the healthcare system, but the markers of success are not so clear moving forward. As Australia considers when and how to ease the restrictions imposed, we must ask anew what success looks like.

Related Cross-cutting Themes

  • Ethics