Coronavirus: Australia unveils three-step plan to ease lockdown restrictions

‘We’ve got to get out from under the doona [duvet] at some time,’ says prime minister Scott Morrison

Prime minister Scott Morrison outline three-step plan during a press conference, 8 May 2020 (Getty Images)

Australia will lift its coronavirus lockdown restrictions in a three-step process, prime minister Scott Morrison has announced – as his government aims to remove all curbs by July.

The country imposed strict social distancing measures and closed its borders in March, credited with drastically slowing the number of new infections of Covid-19.

With fewer than 20 new infections each day, Mr Morrison said Australian states and territories on Friday agreed a road map to get almost one million people back to work.

“You can stay under the doona forever,” the prime minister told reporters, using an Australian word for duvet. “You’ll never face any danger. But we’ve got to get out from under the doona at some time.”

Restaurants and cafes currently limited to takeaway services will be allowed to reopen, but with a maximum of 10 patrons at a time, under the first stage of the plan.

Stage two will see gyms, cinemas and galleries allowed to reopen, although businesses will only be able to have 20 customers at a time. States that have closed their borders would also start to allow some interstate travel, Mr Morrison said.

Stage three will permit gatherings of up to 100 people, see the reopening of nightclubs and allow employees to return to their offices. All interstate travel will be allowed, along with some limited international travel, including flights between Australia and New Zealand.

Mr Morrison said it will be up to the country’s individual states and territories to decide when to begin implement each stage, with each step likely to be separated by four-week transition.

Despite the staggered easing, he warned the country should still expect further outbreaks.

Australia has had fewer than 7,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and fewer than 800 people are still sick with the disease. Almost 100 people have died.

While the country has been hailed for successfully containing the disease and preventing local hospitals being swamped by coronavirus patients, the lockdown measures have still taken a devastating toll on the economy.

On Friday Australia’s central bank predicted the country is facing its biggest economic contraction on record, forecasting the economy would shrink by 10 per cent in the first half of the year.

Despite the government subsidising the wages of about 6 million Australians that keeps them out of unemployment statistics, about 10 per cent of the country’s labour force is also expected to be without a job this year.

Mr Morrison said the government expects about 850,000 people will be able to return to work once the exit plan is implemented.

The prime minister told reporters he hopes “most workers … will be back in the workplace” once step three is introduced.