Social media abuse on Canberra coronavirus cases could push COVID-19 underground

As Melbourne battles to contain its second wave of infections, only time will tell whether the virus managed to spread silently before the borders were closed.

"We just don't know [if the virus is already spreading]," Dr Kerryn Coleman said.

"We will have to wait and see until these periods of quarantine are over.

"It actually is OK if we get cases of people we know have been in Victoria and have been in quarantine, because we have limited their exposure to other people.

"The ones that really worry me are the ones where we don't know about them and they haven't been self-isolating."

READ MORE:

The Victorian and NSW border was closed on Wednesday, while the ACT brought in mandatory quarantine in the days prior.

Dr Coleman has urged Canberrans to be kind to people who have tested positive after visiting Melbourne, fearing recent online abuse targeting them could send the disease underground.

Abusive and offensive comments directed towards ACT's newest cases on social media prompted ACT Health to plead with people to consider the impact of their comments before posting on its Facebook page.

"We don't want to push people underground because they're afraid of how other people will react to them, we want people to feel comfortable and safe enough to come forward," Dr Coleman said.

"Otherwise we will have transmission underground, we won't be able to pick it up and it will be out of control.

"So we have to have a safe environment where people feel they can come forward, get tested and identified, even if they may not have done exactly the right thing.

"Even if there's only a couple of people who [don't come forward because they fear the backlash], and they become a case, and they transmit, then that would be a real sense of concern for our community, we could be seeing transmission and it would be too late by the time we know that's occurring."

Dr Coleman said while Melbourne was experiencing a resurgence of the disease, the ACT was not.

She said the territory was far more prepared now than it was when the pandemic first hit.

"We've been working on this for months now," she said.

"We are ready to do what we do best. While we are not looking forward to it, we are here and ready to go."

Some Canberrans have questioned why limited information is released about public places new cases have visited.

Dr Coleman said the team assesses the risk of transmission at the location, and whether there could have been any untraceable people there.

For example, when a case attended a house inspection, it was not included in public alerts as the real estate agent was able to provide the details of all people who were there.

READ MORE:

Most experts believe an effective and mass produced vaccine is still potentially years away, and that we must learn to live with the virus.

Dr Coleman said governments and public health experts were still figuring out what the "sweet spot" in terms of restrictions will be.

"It's going to be an interesting journey," she said.

"I'm not quite sure at what level of restrictions will be the point at which we reach that sweet spot, where we can balance the public health risk but also keeping society going and whether that spot has to move every now and then."