Coronavirus outbreak response likely to be local, Hunt says

FUTURE coronavirus outbreaks were likely to be contained locally rather than by returning to the sweeping statewide shutdowns which succeeded in squashing the deadly disease, federal Health Minister Greg Hunt says.

While authorities continue to warn of potential infections as restrictions ease, outbreaks are unlikely to spark a return to statewide lockdown measures.

Mr Hunt pointed to an outbreak in northwest Tasmania that led to a localised shutdown, including the closure of hospitals in the area.

“If there is a suburban, facility-based, or if there is a regional outbreak, we want those localised rings of containment,” he said on Monday.

“It would only be if there was a systemic statewide outbreak that we would look at reversing. At this stage our belief is that is highly unlikely.”

Public schools across NSW and Queensland welcomed children back on Monday after about two months of most students learning from home, in the latest sign Australia is edging towards a new normal.

Victorian students in Prep, Grade 1 and 2, as well as year 11 and 12, returned.

Other restrictions will ease over the next week, with Victoria giving the green light to gatherings of 20 and NSW allowing beauty salons to reopen.

Mildura again recorded no new confirmed COVID-19 cases again on Monday with just two new cases recorded in Victoria.

Australia’s coronavirus figures

* 7112 total cases, with 6509 recovered and 102 dead* 501 active cases

* Six new cases in past 24 hours

* Growth rate of new cases has been under 0.5 per cent for five weeks

* Many of the new cases are people in hotel quarantine

* Number of clinics has expanded to 485, with about 25,000 tests conducted daily

* About 0.6 per cent of tests return positive

* Just over six million COVIDSafe apps downloaded

Source: Health Minister Greg Hunt