Why Australia's Covid 19 Response Was Better Than Most

Countries all over the world fell into uncertain times when the coronavirus (Covid 19) began to quickly spread. World leaders had to quickly come up with a plan of action to keep their citizens safe and healthy. Some countries went into strict lockdown, while others’ responses were delayed. It’s no wonder now why there are some countries lifting restrictions and coming out of quarantine while other countries are still having daily death counts approaching the thousands.

Australia had one of the best Covid 19 responses throughout the entire world. Today, almost all of Australia is back to normal with quarantine restrictions lifted and no masks to be seen. There are many reasons why our country has done better than most:

Being an Island

One of the biggest factors that helped Australia go back to normal is being an island. Australia is closed off from the rest of the world with no neighbouring countries to worry about. Much like New Zealand, Vietnam, Brunei and some Caribbean islands, Australia is reporting fewer cases every week. Defeating a virus can definitely be a lot easier when your country is an island and the borders are closed to foreigners, but that isn’t the only factor that helped Australia.

Strict Quarantine

When it was clear the virus was very serious and people’s lives were in danger, Australia went into a very strict quarantine that kept many citizens at home for months, especially in Victoria. Unlike the United States and Europe, the borders were strictly closed to foreigners. Blocking out the rest of the world from entering and keeping Australians from leaving had a huge effect on controlling the spread of the virus.

For Australian citizens, they had to stay at home unless absolutely necessary. For instance, in Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city, most people were confined to their homes for 22 hours a day. The only time they were allowed to leave their homes was only for exercise, shopping, schooling, medical appointments, or funerals. These strict rules and regulations helped keep the virus under control and saved many lives.

Rigorous Contact Tracing

Another strategy Australia has put in place while tackling the virus is its rigorous contact tracing. Australia has adopted a backwards contact-tracing approach to keep coronavirus cases low. Instead of forward contact tracing by finding all the people an infected person could have passed the virus on to and asking them to self-isolate, Australia’s backwards contact tracing aims to find who gave the virus to the person who tested positive, which can potentially pick up infections that might otherwise be missed.

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