Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health. Will the minister please provide an update to the House on the global status of the COVID-19 pandemic and how Australia's unique response to the pandemic compares? And are there any alternative policies?

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Robertson, who, long before the pandemic, expressed a deep interest in immune conditions and respiratory conditions. Sadly, this respiratory condition and this disease, COVID-19, almost unimaginably, is accelerating. It is spreading at a faster rate than at any time before. We now know that the world has passed over 50 million formally diagnosed cases, that 1¼ million people have lost their lives. That means that, around the world, families are suffering, nations are in turmoil and economies are struggling. Every one of the past 14 days has seen over 400,000 cases—some over 500,000 and some, indeed, over 600,000 cases. In the past few days we've had the highest number on record for cases and for lives lost.

That makes us stop and look at Australia. Today, as the Prime Minister has said, we've had a second consecutive day of zero cases and a fourth day of zero nationwide cases in the past nine days. Against that background, the world is looking to Australia, and what they see is a nation that took early action and approached this, from the outset, by listening to the science, taking action and delivering on the outcomes. In particular, we closed the borders on 1 February on the basis of the medical advice. We took steps to deliver testing results which have now seen Australia having done over 9.1 million tests, with a continuous flow of tests at a time, when so many other nations around the world have struggled with their testing regimes. The delivery of that outcome has been one of the most significant in terms of saving and protecting lives. The contact-tracing around the nation has been overwhelmingly outstanding. Obviously there was a huge challenge in Victoria, but progress has been made, and I welcome that fact. And then we have taken the difficult steps with distancing. But all of these things have been combined with not just flattening the curve but also building the capacity—the delivery of 38 million primary health services through telehealth, the delivery of mental health support services, the delivery of 7½ thousand ventilators. And I can inform the House that, as of today, we now have zero Australians on ventilation as a result of COVID-19. I thank Australians for what they have done, and we recommit to continue this fight.