Australia is expected to embrace a new strategy of living with Covid-19, slashing restrictions and tackling the virus in a similar way to the flu.
The focus will be on reducing the risk for vulnerable people instead of trying to control the spread of the virus, Doherty Institute director Sharon Lewin has said.
After almost two years of being cut off from the rest of the world, Australia is set to open the international border to vaccinated tourists on February 21.
Professor Lewin predicts the plan would be to reduce disease in at-risk people as NSW are set to reduce restrictions, including the mask mandate and working-from-home orders, on March 1 while other states look to abolish QR check-ins.
Administering booster shots every six months is not viable for Australia, but rather the country would move away from “blunt” population controls, Professor Lewin told the .
The approach would make testing and reporting of cases only necessary for people who need hospital treatment, which is similar to how Australia tackles the flu.
“That would mean a much simpler messaging to the public to stay at home if sick,” Professor Lewin said.
“I’m not saying that that’s going to come in now, but that could be a future scenario if you are not worried about disease [severity].”
Professor Lewin warned authorities need to implement a “scenario” plan on the chance another variant emerges.
Rather than vaccinating the entire population every six months Professor Lewin said Australia needed a broadbased “pan-sarbecoviruses”, which was effective for a range of coronavirus variants.
As the country moves into winter some experts still fear a virus resurgence could happen in the winter months.
