THE CRITERIA NEEDED TO LIFT LOCKDOWN

After guaranteeing that current measures will remain in place for at least four more weeks, the ABC reports that Scott Morrison has outlined three requirements Australia would need to fulfil before the country begins relaxing existing rules:

1. Broader testing regime
2. Better contact tracing
3. Confidence in the healthcare system’s capacity to contain outbreaks

According to The Sydney Morning Herald ($), fresh modelling from the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity suggests social distancing measures are keeping the pandemic at a low level, to the point that the virus could be eliminated from mainland Australia in a matter of months.

NOT THE END, NOT THE BEGINNING OF THE END: As optimistic as that sounds, consider a new Science report suggesting that resurgent global waves of the virus, “could occur as late as 2025 even after a prolonged period of apparent elimination” and —  in the absence of new treatments or a vaccine — “surveillance and intermittent distancing (or sustained distancing if it is highly effective) may need to be maintained into 2022.”

MILLIONS FOR VIRGIN, QANTAS

Last night, the ABC reported that the federal government will pledge $165 million to underwrite domestic Virgin Australia and Qantas flights to capital cities and around a dozen regional centres, over the next eight weeks.

After suspending domestic flights last week, Virgin Australia will today begin operating 64 return services from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide and Perth. This follows existing support for both airlines to maintain international routes to Los Angeles, London, Hong Kong and Auckland.

NATIONALISE THIS: The announcement comes after Greens leader Adam Bandt called for the government to bring Virgin into public ownership rather than let it fall into administration. The Courier-Mail reports over $2 billion in forward flight bookings and billions more in velocity points, there’s basically no capacity from the private sector.

REMOTE TESTING PROGRAM

The Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt yesterday announced $3.3 million to establish a rapid Remote Point of Care Testing Program for remote and rural Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

There will be 83 testing sites rolled out across at-risk Indigenous communities using the 45-minute Xpert SARS-CoV-2 test, which, as SBS explores in more depth, should come as a relief for communities in areas such as the Kimberley where results can currently take up to 10 days.

LET'S TRACETOGETHER, APART

According to ZDNet, parliamentary discussions have accelerated this week over an Australian version of the TraceTogether app. Minister for Government Services Stuart Robert announced yesterday that, while a local version is still some weeks away from going live, it is in the final stages of a privacy impact assessment, with “very strong cybersecurity assistance” from the Australian Cyber Security Centre and the Australian Signals Directorate.

HOW MANY DIFFERENT WORDS THERE SET OFF RED FLAGS? While Robert also went to pains to explain how the app’s combination of Bluetooth and encrypted systems could protect privacy, computing experts at Macquarie University and the University of Melbourne last week explained how the original app provides too much power and too little oversight to the “centralised authority” managing user’s data.

STATE WRAP: RELAXING DONOR DISCRIMINATION, NT STIMULUS PACKAGE & LANDLORD PROTESTS

• NSW is set to relax restrictions on gay men donating blood and redress discriminatory red tape throughout the pandemic (The Sydney Morning Herald ($));
• The NT government will double its “Home Improvement Scheme” stimulus package to more than $60 million, after receiving more than 10,000 applications in under a month (NT News); and
• The Queensland Government has promised to continue consultation on proposed rental protections after the Real Estate Institute of Queensland delivered thousands of angry letters to the Premier’s office within a 24-hour campaign. (The Courier-Mail)