OPINION: Australia's coronavirus lockdown strategy worked. Could this be a model for the US?

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Mon, 2020-09-21 10:14 — mike kraft

Analysis: Australia's coronavirus lockdown strategy worked. Could this be a model for the US? When Daniel Andrews, premier of the Australian state of Victoria, declared a lockdown over the coronavirus, some detractors on the right labeled him a "dictator" and said he was trying to build "a gulag." Analysis by James Griffiths, CNN CNN

CNN)When Daniel Andrews, premier of the Australian state of Victoria, declared a lockdown over the coronavirus, some detractors on the right labeled him a "dictator" and said he was trying to build "a gulag."

But Andrews -- a Labor Party politician who has run Australia's second-largest state since 2014 -- has remained popular with Victorians throughout the lockdown, local polls show. And this week, his hardline approach was thoroughly vindicated.

On Sunday, Victoria recorded just 11 new coronavirus cases, down from over 670 at the height of the most recent outbreak last month. Next week, Melbourne will begin lifting some restrictions if new cases remain below a fortnightly average of 50 per day. A nightly curfew is slated to remain in effect until October 26.

"We can do this," Andrews tweeted Sunday, echoing his words at the beginning of the lockdown: "We are Victorians -- and we will get through this as Victorians. With grit, with guts and together."

And while it may have provoked outrage from some elements of the Australian media, and criticism from Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Victoria's experience shows once again that targeted lockdowns are effective in containing the coronavirus: driving down infections, relieving pressure on hospitals and medical staff, and creating space for contact tracing and mass testing.

This was first shown in China, where the government imposed an intense lockdown on Wuhan, the city where cases of the virus were first detected late last year. Wuhan spent 76-days under lockdown, which was finally lifted as the daily caseload slowed to a trickle.

That was back in April, and now Wuhan is basically back to normal, even able to host massive water park raves without much concern. And the model has been successfully applied to other cities across China, including the capital Beijing, suppressing new spikes as they appear and keeping national figures down. ...

For some lockdown skeptics, China's experience was easy to dismiss: the country is an authoritarian, one-party state, and its methods could not necessarily be applied in democracies.

But the situation in Victoria proves that the lockdown strategy does work elsewhere, and that, given the proper information and reassurances, people are willing to make the sacrifices required to contain the virus. ...

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