Two of the doctors advising the Australian Government on its coronavirus response have said they cannot see the medical reasons for some states keeping their borders closed.
Yet these very states and territories — the Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia — insist they are staying shut because of medical advice.
Why are there such different opinions?
Why are borders such a big deal in controlling COVID-19?
Australia has some of the strongest coronavirus border controls in the world, which are credited as a key reason for our success in suppressing the spread of the virus.
The Australian Government closed its international borders to non-citizens and non-residents on March 20, on the advice of its medical expert committee.
This body — officially called the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) — includes all the state chief health officers and is chaired by Australia’s chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy.
“We knew that the greatest risk to uncontrolled transmission was in imported cases,” Professor Murphy told a Senate inquiry last month.
“As an island, we were in a position of perhaps doing border measures more eff