South Australia approach slammed as ‘sledgehammer’, but did they get it right? - NEWS.com.au

South Australians are jumping head first into a lockdown that is unprecedented in Australia and more severe in many ways to what Victorians experienced, albeit shorter.

The announcement of a six-day lockdown that shuts schools, most industries including construction, retail and hospitality, led to panic buying in and around Adelaide on Wednesday afternoon.

Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell was among those critical of the measures given South Australia’s rise in positive coronavirus cases on Wednesday was just two — and both were linked to an existing cluster.

“Is it a sledgehammer with a walnut?” he said of the measures Premier Steven Marshall called a “circuit breaker”.

“I mean, they’ve shut down construction. Even in March and April, when NSW and Victoria had 150 cases a day, construction wasn’t shut down.

“They won’t even allow you to go outside to exercise.

“The Prime Minister says that national cabinet has agreed to a policy of suppression. It’s about to realise this country’s approach is one of elimination. It is overkill.”

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But experts, including Deakin University Chair in Epidemiology Professor Catherine Bennett say SA got it right, even if the measures seem overly restrictive.

“I think this is an important use of lockdown,” she told news.com.au.

“It’s one that does the give the health department time to make sure they’ve got control of the cluster. Until they’re sure they’re ahead of the virus, this is a drastic measure but an important measure.

“If you use a bushfire analogy, this is like dampening down all the grasslands around it so the virus can’t spread.”

She rejected the notion that it is overkill, given the number of cases.

“If it’s short and you’re going in as hard as you can — it’s the circuit breaker idea. Sure, some people won’t have groceries, but it means everybody is protected (from infection).”

“The trade off here is that it’s six days. It’s nothing like Melbourne. It’s six days — it won’t have the same long term implications. It’s trying to keep it less than a week — going hard. It saves them from having to go for six weeks.”

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Asked if she think the South Australian approach touted by Chief Health Officer Nicola Spurrier will work, Prof Bennett said: “I do think it's the right approach given what they’ve discovered so far.

“I think closing down the risk of transmission outside this cluster is important and the only question I would ask is if you need to make it statewide.

“The main thing is to buy that time, so they can find anyone else who has been exposed who is already infectious — even if they find new people, those people have very little chance of infecting other people.

“They will not have had the same opportunity to then spread on to another two new cases so that’s an important thing, to stop that wider spread.

“They’re still not asking people without symptoms to be tested because they’re trying to manage their testing. But there’s still a risk for (asymptomatic cases).

Prof Bennett described the South Australian approach as “the absolute pinnacle of going early, and keeping it short”.

“If the virus gets into workplaces, Victoria tells us how hard it is to manage. Particularly aged care,” she said.

“That’s the role of the circuit breaker. That’s what drove the second wave (in Victoria). It wasn’t community transmission, it was workplaces and people taking it home, and then taking it to new workplaces.

“You can tolerate some low level community transmission … but you need the circuit breaker before it gets into workplaces.”

Flinders University epidemiologist Dr Emma Miller isn’t quite as convinced.

She “doesn’t really know” if South Australia’s outbreak can be brought under control in six days.

“I think it’s probably an effort to at least get on the way to getting it under control,” Dr Miller told the ABC.

“I mean, a 6-day lockdown is pretty well time to get over the three day generation of transmission so there will be two generations apparently they can track down or certainly give them more time to find any other cases that may have arisen while everybody is not moving around and spreading the virus.

“I think it’s entirely likely that we will still have some sporadic cases after that and it may well be that the lockdown will go on in some form after six days.”

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2020-11-18 15:51:08Z
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