Australia’s COVID-19 restrictions could be lifted sooner thanks to a new app

The National Cabinet will discuss lifting Australia’s coronavirus restrictions for the first time on Wednesday – as the Federal Government prepares to roll out a mobile app it believes could be key to ending lockdown. 

The rate of coronavirus transmission in Australia is slowing, with latest figures showing more people are recovering from the illness than are battling it for the first time since the pandemic struck the country in January.  

Some 6,400 Australians have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and more than half of them have recovered. Sixty-two people have died. 

The so-called ‘flattening’ of the curve has raised hopes Australians could return their normal lives sooner rather than later.

State and federal leaders will meet on Wednesday to discuss when restrictions on travel and gatherings of people can be relaxed.

Scott Morrison has stressed the country is not in a position to relax all restrictions, but earlier revealed the government was ready to discuss plans to re-open the economy. 

‘That’s what we’re working on as a National Cabinet,’ he said on Tuesday. 

‘[Today] we will be considering further plans about how we can chart that way back to get the economy operating at a much higher level than it is now so it can support people’s incomes.’ 

Treasury modelling shows Australia’s unemployment rate is expected to nearly double to 10 per cent because of the pandemic.

It was slated to reach as high as 15 per cent without government support.

Mr Morrison said ‘a lot of scientific work’ is being put into the plan and the government is also looking at measures being taken by other countries.

‘So we are hopeful that at some point we can move from the phase we are currently in, to a new phase, but I do want to caution Australians that we’re not in that phase yet we’re many weeks away I think from being in a phase like that,’ he added.    

Any easing of restrictions would need to be backed up by a strong health system and even stronger testing regime.  

Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly said measures will most likely have to be in place for an estimated six months, but suggested it was possible some rules could be rolled back within that time frame. 

‘We definitely don’t want to just open up everything that we’ve dampened down on so far because we’ve seen in other countries what has happened with an uncontrolled epidemic and we just cannot afford to do that in Australia,’ Prof Kelly said.

The government is also floating the idea of digital tracking via mobile phones, as used in Singapore and Taiwan, to potentially replace the tough restrictions.

But chief medical officer Brendan Murphy acknowledged there would have to be community buy-in for such a move.

The app, which will be optional, will also require at least 40 per cent of the population to be on board for it to be effective, according to The ABC. 

The TraceTogether application is currently being used in Singapore to help track the spread of the disease.

Australia has been given the code to develop the surveillance software and it is expected to be rolled out within the next fortnight. 

TraceTogether uses Bluetooth to detect other users in close proximity, with encounters stored on a person’s phone. 

They then have to share the records with authorities when asked to be part of a tracing investigation.

‘We’re very keen to use it and use it perhaps even more extensively than Singapore,’ Dr Murphy told a New Zealand parliamentary hearing. 

‘Obviously there’s a conversation to have with the community about the acceptability of it but we think that idea, the TraceTogether app, is a really excellent one,’ he said.

‘We’re actively looking at that as part of a measure that might be used to perhaps consider some relaxation of measures.’  

But Australians are being warned international travel is still likely to be out of the question for the foreseeable future.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told reporters on Tuesday it’s ‘unrealistic’ to think the border restrictions will be relaxed anytime soon. 

Health authorities say the pandemic is moving into a containment phase.

They want to keep a close eye on possible community transmissions, where new diagnoses aren’t linked to known cases or people who have brought the virus back from overseas.

Peter Collignon from the Australian National University said the timing of the global pandemic meant the country had dodged the worst of COVID-19.

‘If you look at any respiratory virus, they transmit much more readily in winter,’ he told AAP on Tuesday.

Professor Collignon expects an uptick in coronavirus cases as more people retreat inside and the weather cools.

‘All the factors aren’t clear but what’s beyond doubt is viral infections, respiratory infections are more common in winter and early spring.’

He believes rules rolled out since March had helped flatten the curve of coronavirus infections.

Australia has shut down its borders, returned visitors have been quarantined, hospitality businesses have been closed and social gatherings dramatically curtailed.

‘All those things that are pretty drastic and put a million people out of work, we’re going to have to continue mostly till the end of winter,’ Professor Collignon said.