Leading infection control expert says Australia must cancel more events

Extract from ABC News

Video: Urgent calls to cancel mass gatherings in Australia over Coronavirus spread (ABC News)

One of Australia's leading infection control experts says if he was controlling the response to the coronavirus crisis, he would immediately cancel every NRL, AFL and AFLW game.

"Facts and evidence dictate that these mass gatherings should not take place," Bill Bowtell, from the Kirby Institute for Infection and Immunity, said on ABC News Breakfast.

Mr Bowtell said it was "not good enough" that there has been no public education campaign.

"We don't seem to have a problem with a one, national economic response, but the Government has presided over eight or nine do-it-yourself state-and-territory responses on the public health side. This is not good enough."

He pointed to Denmark as a cautionary example of how quickly the coronavirus crisis can escalate.

"Last Monday, they had 54 cases. Today they have 670. It is growing exponentially. It is the fierce urgency of now, the next hours and days, which will dictate the way in which this evolves in Australia," he said.