With just 11 new cases of the virus reported in NSW overnight, Australia continues to flatten the curve and Hunt said today’s National Cabinet meeting will start to consider possible ways out of the crisis.
“We have brought ourselves to a position where we are flattening the curve, reducing to just over 40 the number of cases a day ... but they are still increasing,” he told Today.
“That means that we are in a position now where over the coming weeks if we can be stable, further reduce, further suppress the number of cases, we can then look at the pathway out.
“That’s exactly what the national cabinet is doing today.
“They are starting to plan that pathway out.”
But Hunt warned of a need to be patient amid concerns of a “second wave” of the virus, similar to the one seen in Singapore where cases had flattened out before suddenly spiking again.
“We have to be careful about a second wave,” he said.
“Not releasing too soon but releasing carefully and gradually.
“We are winning the health battle, we are not there yet but in order to be able to win the economic battle we have to maintain the health disciplines, maintain that social isolation and distancing practice, but this is what is allowing Australia to really be in a very solid position.”
It comes as Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has warned Australia will not lift social distancing rules prematurely.
“We will continue to be led by the medical advice ... that has served us well,” Frydenberg said.
“Just a few weeks ago we were seeing the growth in the number of coronavirus cases of more than 20 per cent per day.
“That’s now gone below 2 per cent.”
Frydenberg also pointed to countries who have begun relaxing measures and seen a spike in cases as a result.
“If you look at Japan, if you look at Singapore, in those countries they thought they were making real progress, they started to relax restrictions and they saw a second wave of infections across their country,” he said.
“And in places like Sweden, which allowed large gatherings, they’ve now had more than 10 times the number of deaths from the coronavirus than Australia, yet Sweden has less than half of our population.
“There are real challenges ahead.
“People should not be complacent. Patience is a real virtue.”
According to the latest statistics, there are now 6458 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Australia, while the death toll stands at 63.
