Shadow Lockdown Hurting Small Businesses Despite Cases Falling

Despite Covid cases starting to decline across the eastern states, it seems that easing restrictions with the aim of "opening up the economy" has had an adverse effect.

In a statement this week, Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) chief executive Terry Slevin said the strive from most states to return to normal had failed.

"What we didn't understand then, but we better understand now, is that it's also a way of keeping the economy viable," Professor Slevin said.

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It follows Prime Minister Scott Morrison's announcement last week that Australia would deal with Omicron as a "gear-change" and "push through" to protect hospitals, whilst bolstering the economy.

"You have two choices here: you can push through or you can lock down. We're for pushing through."

- PM Morrison

However, the way most of Australia has dealt with the spread of Omicron, has been to lay low, causing the experience a shadow lockdown.

The self-imposed restrictions have been determined by Australians frustrated that public health measures were either stripped back or abandoned just as the Omicron wave descended.

This new self-regulation continues, even after the federal government redefined the definition of a close contact and changing Covid isolation rules to help ease the pressure on workforces and supply chains.

This change in people's behaviour, according to Professor Warwick McKibbin of the ANU's Crawford School of Public Policy, is now determining greater economic loss, as opposed to lockdowns.

“In our modelling most of the economic costs come from human behaviour not the shutdowns themselves,’’ he says.

To suppress transmission of the virus, Prof McKibbin said the reintroduction of measures such as capacity limits, mask mandates and limiting the number of people who can visit private homes are essential.

“Whichever scenario you look at, a pandemic, of any nature no matter how many waves, causes massive economic disruption and should be avoided at all costs.”

- Prof McKibbin

It comes as Victoria reports a dip in cases with 13,091 new infections on Sunday and sadly 14 more lives lost.

There are currently 191,058 active coronavirus cases across the state, with 1,002 people in hospital with Covid, while 120 of those are in ICU and 44 are on ventilators.

Of today's new infections, 6,625 were detected through positive PCR tests from a total of 32,435 PCR test results received.

While 6,466 cases were reported by Victorians from at-home rapid antigen tests (RATs).

Currently, more than 93 per cent of Victorians aged over 12 are now fully vaccinated, while 31 per cent have received their third dose.

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