Coronavirus infections ‘on the cusp’ of slowing in Australia, Professor Paul Kelly says

Australia could be “on the cusp” of slowing the infections of coronavirus to the point that the epidemic “dies out”, Australia’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer says.

Professor Paul Kelly said the number of people infected by one person with COVID-19 was a key component in understanding how it spreads.

“Ideally where you want to be is below one, so less than one other person being infected after a person themselves had the infection,” he said.

“And once you get to that point, the virus dies out, or the epidemic dies out. And so at the moment we’re probably on the cusp of that in Australia.

“Now whether that’s where we’re going to be in several weeks or months time, remains to be seen.”

Professor Kelly reinforced government warnings that people should stay home over the Easter long weekend.

“This is not time for us to be changing the rules in terms of social distancing and the other things we’ve done in society over recent weeks,” he said.

“It’s a time to consolidate those gains and to then of course to consider what might happen in the future. But at this time, the stay-at-home message is really important.”