Officials Say Community Sport Could Be One Of The First Isolation Restrictions To Be Lifted

Everyone is wondering when social distancing restrictions will be lifted in Australia.

After more than a month of pubs and clubs and other big areas being shut down, people are getting a little antsy in their homes.

But we've been given an insight into what health authorities think is the way out for us.

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National Cabinet is in charge of making the decisions about where we can go and they're yet to officially rule on when restrictions will ease.

But Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy explained that 'small groups' of people in public could happen first.

Speaking at a press conference, Dr Murphy said: "Certainly some relaxation of the size of small groups is possible.

"There are a range of measures [National Cabinet] has asked us to consider, things like community sport, some retail measures, all those things will be in the mix but we have to weigh up the public health risk versus the benefit to the society and the economy."

He said the community sport was particularly important.

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However, health authorities are cautious about opening up the country before it's safe to do so.

Singapore recently saw a spike in the number of coronavirus cases and Dr Murphy says they don't want to relax restrictions and then tighten them again.

"We have to keep the public with us," he said.

"The public have been fantastic but we have to make sure our measures are sustainable because there will be some sort of measure that will be needed for quite a long time."

When asked about what will be the last restriction lifted, Dr Murphy was pretty adamant that it would be international travel.

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He told reporters: "There is great concern that if we relax too much too quickly we could get a second wave as has been seen in Singapore.

"The international situation at the moment is such that any relaxation of border measures would be very risky."

The Australian government has warned that international travel might not resume until at least next year, so you probably shouldn't start looking at an overseas jaunt to soothe those self-isolation blues.

We all have to band together through this and listen to the experts otherwise we could see case numbers jump, meaning more time working from home and spending time indoors and away from your friends and family.

Topics: News, Australia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie