In nearly 5 months, this past Sunday Australia recorded no new coronavirus cases. With no new cases, Australia is starting to ease restrictions. For the second day in a row, the state of Victoria which was originally a coronavirus hotspot had no new cases and no deaths. Victoria accounted for more than 90% of all Covid-19 900 deaths in Australia. On Saturday, Health Minister Greg Hunt was voted in by the Queensland voters for his third term for his astonishing work on keeping the borders closed. Victoria eased almost all of the 111 day lockdown restrictions in result of no new Covid cases. With less than 200 active cases inside Australia they are seeing some of the lowest cases in the world. Brett Sutton, the Chief Health Director in Victoria said, “To see 50,000 cases a day in France, to see Belgium sending patients outside the country because they’re so overwhelmed – that’s what we might have faced if we had not able to get on top of it.” Australian officials hope to reopen borders and reunite citizens stranded overseas by Christmas.
With fewer than 200 active cases in Australia it shows that taking the right precautions with the coronavirus can save thousands of lives. While shutting down the borders is terrible for the economy standpoint and disrupts trade and travel, Australian officials are looking at the long term effects and realize that protecting the lives of their citizens is more important than the success of the country. With only citizens of Australia allowed to travel back to their homeland, many of Australian citizens are still stranded abroad and are not able to get home to their families. While this may be miserable for some people not being able to see their loved ones, it is for the countries own safety. With countries like the United States, France, and Belgium all taking heavy casualties from Covid-19, they are focusing on maintaining a strong economy by keeping trade and borders open. With Australian officials hoping to open the borders again soon, we will have to wait and see whether the cases rise in result of opening the borders
With viruses becoming part of globalization, it is prevalent that the virus was able to spread as fast as it did. As Australia completely shut down its borders except for its citizens they are completely isolating themselves from the world and in effect, globalization is not being brought to the country during this time except for social media trends. With no new cases being seen in the last day, the hope of reopening the country and reconnecting it to the rest of the world will help globalization spread back to the country with the hope of Covid-19 not coming with it.