Coronavirus: Australia wants to live with Covid-19 ‘like the flu’, PM says
- PM Scott Morrison, whose government faces an election in May, said Australia was ‘pretty much’ at the phase of ‘living with the virus like the flu’
- Health officials, however, flagged concern about a new sub-variant of Omicron they said could bring a doubling of the country’s 15,000 daily cases by March-end
A day after meeting with the national cabinet of state and federal leaders, Morrison told reporters on Saturday morning they had discussed moving to “Phase D” of the national pandemic response plan.
“Our airports are open again, international arrivals can come, there are waivers now on quarantine for people returning, so we are pretty much in Phase D,” he said.
The nation’s leaders wanted to drop the isolation requirement for close contacts of Covid-19 cases and would seek further advice on this from an expert panel, he said.
The isolation rule was “starving businesses of staff”, said Morrison, whose conservative government faces an election in May.
“We believe we are pretty much in Phase D now, there are a few exceptions to that. Phase D, remember, means living with the virus like the flu,” he said.