'Risk of a global pandemic is upon us': Scott Morrison launches an emergency response plan to deal with deadly coronavirus

  • Scott Morrison has declared a coronavirus pandemic is 'very much upon us'
  • Prime Minister on Thursday afternoon launched an 'emergency response plan'
  • Health Minister Greg Hunt has been tasked with tackling 'capability gaps' 

By Stephen Johnson For Daily Mail Australia

Published: | Updated:

Scott Morrison has declared a coronavirus pandemic is 'very much upon us' as he launched an emergency plan.

The Prime Minister has instructed Health Minister Greg Hunt to identify 'gaps in capabilities' within Australia's state-based health services as they combat the spread of the deadly, flu-like illness from China.

'We believe that the risk of a pandemic is very much upon us,' he told reporters in Canberra on Thursday. 

'We need to take the steps necessary to prepare for such a pandemic.'

Scott Morrison has declared a coronavirus pandemic is 'very much upon us' as he declared an emergency

Scott Morrison has declared a coronavirus pandemic is 'very much upon us' as he declared an emergency

The Prime Minister said that during the past 24 hours, the 'rate of transmission of the virus outside of China is fundamentally changing the way we need to look at how this issue is being managed here in Australia'. Pictured are commuters in Tokyo wearing face masks

The Prime Minister said that during the past 24 hours, the 'rate of transmission of the virus outside of China is fundamentally changing the way we need to look at how this issue is being managed here in Australia'. Pictured are commuters in Tokyo wearing face masks

Mr Morrison said that during the past 24 hours, the 'rate of transmission of the virus outside of China is fundamentally changing the way we need to look at how this issue is being managed here in Australia'.

'As a result, we've agreed today and initiated the implementation of the coronavirus emergency response plan,' he said.

'Based on the expert medical advice we have received, there is every indication the world will enter a pandemic phase of the coronavirus.'

The Australian government has declared the emergency response plan a day after the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention forecast it would turn into a pandemic.

It is being co-ordinated by the National Security Committee. 

'As a government, we need to take the steps necessary to prepare for such a pandemic,' Mr Morrison said. 

The World Health Organisation is yet to describe coronavirus as a pandemic. 

The Prime Minister on Thursday also extended the travel ban to China for another week. 

The COVID-19 coronavirus has infected more than 80,000 people worldwide since it originated in December at an animal market in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

That included 23 people in Australia.

Another eight Australians had been flown from the Diamond Princess cruise ship at Yokohama in Japan to a quarantine centre near Darwin, where they tested positive.

Eight Australians had been flown from the Diamond Princess cruise ship at Yokohama in Japan to a quarantine centre near Darwin, where they tested positive. Pictured are evacuees at Darwin International Airport

Eight Australians had been flown from the Diamond Princess cruise ship at Yokohama in Japan to a quarantine centre near Darwin, where they tested positive. Pictured are evacuees at Darwin International Airport

Coronavirus has killed more than 2,600 people globally and can cause severe lung damage and trigger multiple organ failure, particularly among the elderly or frail.

Australia is still in the containment stage of coronavirus. 

The Prime Minister launched the coronavirus action plan just hours after a leading infectious diseases expert told Daily Mail Australia COVID-19 was likely to kill a greater proportion of elderly Australians, compared with China.

Professor Raina MacIntyre, the head of Biosecurity at the University of New South Wales's Kirby Institute, warned hospital intensive care units would be overwhelmed should coronavirus turn into a pandemic.

'The disease, it's clearly more severe the older you get,' she told Daily Mail Australia on Thursday.

'So we would see proportionately more severe disease because we have more older people than China does.'

In Australia 16 per cent of the population are over 65, compared to just nine per cent in China, where some 2,700 have died.

Professor Raina MacIntyre, the head of Biosecurity at the University of New South Wales's Kirby Institute, warned hospital intensive care units would be overwhelmed should coronavirus turn into a pandemic

Professor Raina MacIntyre, the head of Biosecurity at the University of New South Wales's Kirby Institute, warned hospital intensive care units would be overwhelmed should coronavirus turn into a pandemic

CORONAVIRUS CASES IN AUSTRALIA

NEW SOUTH WALES: 4  

January 25

  • Three men aged 43, 53, and 35 who had recently travelled to China are confirmed to have contracted the disease.
  • Two flew in from Wuhan while the other arrived in Sydney from Shenzhen, south China.
  • They were treated in isolation at Westmead Hospital

January 27 

  • A 21-year-old woman is identified as the fourth person to test positive for the illness in NSW.
  • The woman, a student at UNSW, flew into Sydney International Airport on flight MU749 on January 23 and presented to the emergency department 24 hours later after developing flu-like symptoms. 

VICTORIA: 7

January 25

  • A Chinese national aged in his 50s becomes the first confirmed case of the coronavirus in Australia.
  • The man flew to Melbourne on China Southern flight CZ321 from Wuhan via Guangzhou on January 19.
  • He was quarantined at Monash Hospital in Clayton in Melbourne's east.

January 29

  • A Victorian man in his 60s is diagnosed with the coronavirus.
  • He became unwell on January 23 - two days after returning from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak. 
  •  The man was confirmed as positive on January 29 and was subsequently seen by doctors at the Monash Medical Centre.

January 30

  • A woman in her 40s is found to have coronavirus. 
  • She was visiting from China and mostly spent time with her family.
  • She is being treated at Royal Melbourne Hospital.          

    February 1

    • A woman in her 20s in Melbourne is found to have the virus 

     February 22 

    • Two passengers taken off the Diamond Princess cruise ship test positive
    • February 25
    • Third passenger take off the cruise ship tests positive

    QUEENSLAND: 8

    January 29

    • Queensland confirms its first case after a 44-year-old Chinese national was diagnosed with the virus. He is being treated at Gold Coast University Hospital.

    January 30

    • A 42-year-old Chinese woman who was travelling in the same Wuhan tour group as the 44-year-old man tests positive. She is in Gold Coast University Hospital in stable condition.  

    February 4

    • An eight-year-old boy has been diagnosed coronavirus. He is also from the tour group where the other Queensland cases came from    

    February 5  

    • The case was found in a 37-year-old man, who was a member of a group of nine Chinese tourists in quarantine on the Gold Coast

    February 6

    • A 37-year-old woman has been diagnosed with coronavirus from the same travel group that flew to Queensland from Melbourne on January 27
    February 21                                                                                                                                      
    • Two Queensland women, aged 54 and 55, tested positive for COVID-19 and will be flown to Brisbane for further treatment. 
    • A 57-year-old woman from Queensland also tests positive for the virus  

    SOUTH AUSTRALIA: 3

    February 1

    • A Chinese couple in their 60s who arrived in Adelaide from Wuhan to visit relatives are confirmed to have coronavirus.
    • A 24-year-old woman from South Australia has been transferred to Royal Adelaide Hospital

    WESTERN AUSTRALIA: 1

    February 21

    • A 78-year-old man from Western Australia was transferred to Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth

    JAPAN/DARWIN: 22    

    • 15 Australians were among 219 confirmed cases of the coronavirus contracted on board Diamond Princess cruise ship at Yokohama. 
    • Seven passengers who were on board the Diamond Princess then tested positive for the coronavirus after arriving at the Manigurr-ma Village Howard Springs facility in Darwin

     

    Advertisement

    Prime Minister Scott Morrison declares a coronavirus pandemic is 'very much upon us'

    Comments 0

    Share what you think

    No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards.

    Add your comment

    What's This?

    By posting your comment you agree to our house rules.