The coronavirus outbreak has continued to spread across the world and into countries we didn’t probably didn’t expect a few weeks ago, such as Brazil, Italy, Israel and Iran. With people are worried that containment of the disease may not be effective, Australia has decided to jump the gun by declaring the coronavirus to be a global pandemic and will treat it as such, meaning they’re going to start doing things like hoarding supplies and implementing stricter travel bans.
Speaking of the coronavirus and pandemics, the GOAT team talk about the biggest talking points about the disease on ‘It’s Been A Big Day For…’ below:
First thing’s first, what exactly does it mean now that the coronavirus has been declared a pandemic (in Australia)? According to infectious diseases expert Sanjaya Senanayake, who spoke to SBS News, there’s no “official” definition for a pandemic but generally means when a disease has crossed international borders, local transmissions have occurred in multiple countries and there’s a real chance that the world could fall sick from it.
The last time we had something on this scale was 2009’s H1N1 influenza pandemic (also known as the Swine flu pandemic), where hundreds of millions contracted the disease and hundreds of thousands died.
Australia’s the only country (at the time of writing) to declare the coronavirus as a global pandemic while the World Health Organisation has officially labelled the disease a “public health emergency of international concern” following 81,000 confirmed cases of people around the world having contracted the infection, and over 2,800 confirmed deaths.
So why haven’t the WHO done an Australia and declared the coronavirus a pandemic? Well that’s to prevent unnecessary panic, stigma, and as we’ve unfortunately seen since the outbreak, racism, especially since not everyone understands what the word “pandemic” means.
Okay, so what should you do (i.e what should you start hoarding) now that Australia has labelled the coronavirus a global pandemic? Well the first thing you shouldn’t do is rush down to your local supermarket in a panic and empty out all the shelves the name of hoarding long-lasting food and toilet paper for the impending apocalypse.
We’re one of the most prepared countries on this green(ish) earth when it comes to a coronavirus pandemic and the disease is contained within Australia at the moment so there’s no need to panic over anything. When Australia’s emergency health response plan for the coronavirus is implemented (which we’ll get into in a bit), it will likely mean some disruption in our everyday lives so some extra preparations will be needed.
Experts (via ABC) said that there’s still time and everyone should start taking stock on whether they have enough essential foods for them and their pets, as well as other useful supplies like toilet paper, medicine and face masks. It is recommended that people should simply think ahead and just buy a few extra groceries on top of their usual weekly shopping list and setting those aside should there be any interruptions to supplies.
So for those thinking about preparing their apocalypse coronavirus bunker and hoarding an entire supermarket’s worth of supplies and face masks, there’s no need to do that.
Lastly, what is Australia’s response after announcing it will start treating the coronavirus as a global pandemic? The government published its response to the coronavirus, which outlined what actions it could take.
At the moment, Australia has:
- Activated a National Incident Response Centre
- Released masks and medical equipment for a national medical stockpile
- Called in the Australian Medical Assistance Team
As for what specific actions Australia could take in light of a coronavirus pandemic, state and territory governments will be responsible for things such as:
- Cancelling large gatherings and public events (to prevent the disease from potentially spreading further)
- Getting people to work from home
- Boosting the capability of hospitals in anticipation of increased demand
- Operating public health responses
- Identifying those infected (known as “contact tracing”)
- Implementing “social distancing” measures, which means things like closing down schools and workplaces, quarantining people, and
- Distributing medicine and implementing infection control guidelines
So for those who are worried about the coronavirus pandemic in Australia, there’s no need to panic hoard or stress as we’re ready to combat whatever the disease has to throw at us.
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