Short, sharp lockdown likely for WA if coronavirus cluster emerges: CHO

“Certainly going hard and fast was very effective in South Australia and it appears to have been quite effective in Queensland – it’s probably a little early to say – but certainly I think that is a consideration and that seems to have worked well.”

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In South Australia, a leakage of coronavirus from hotel quarantine was first detected on November 15 when an elderly woman attended hospital and was tested.

Three days later, after a further 20 cases had been discovered, mostly in the woman’s extended family, South Australia went into lockdown for six days, however the period was shortened to three days after initial concerns over the strain’s infectiousness were debunked.

The cluster infected a total of 33 people over two weeks, the last being on November 28, and led to 5800 people being quarantined.

The last person was released from isolation on December 20.

In Queensland, just one case of the highly infectious United Kingdom strain escaping hotel quarantine via a cleaner on Thursday last week prompted the state government to immediately impose a three-day lockdown for greater Brisbane with only hours’ notice.

The lockdown was lifted on Monday evening after no cases were detected in the woman’s close contacts and their close contacts.

Her partner tested positive the following day while in isolation. As of Tuesday, he was on the only other positive case out of nearly 80,000 tests over five days.

Queensland chief health officer Jeannette Young said the lockdown acted as a circuit breaker, similar to SA’s November response, to stop the virus spreading out of control.

“I think Adelaide managed their outbreak brilliantly … it was probably one of the best responses in the country,” she said.

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“Adelaide by doing that short, sharp [lockdown], by getting things sorted, finding as many cases as possible, minimising the amount of infection out there, minimising the spread early on, I think it made an enormous difference, and that was with a variant that was less infectious.

“I think that three-day circuit breaker just sets the framework.”

Dr Young said the lockdown would also help with an additional 10 days of gathering restrictions to try stay on top of any potential chains of the virus.

Dr Robertson’s comments on whether WA would enter a short lockdown if a case entered the state come after Premier Mark McGowan continued to criticise New South Wales’ suppression approach to managing outbreaks.

“There’s five states and territories doing one thing, and one state doing something different,” he said on Monday.

“The states and territories that want to eliminate the virus, I think have the right approach.

“The idea you tick along with the virus and somehow that is a better model is wrong and I just urge the New South Wales government and people in New South Wales to look at what other states and territories are doing in order to crush and kill the virus.”