The editor-in-chief of the MJA has taken to YouTube, along with a number of other high-profile doctors, to demand the country is put in lockdown.

Professor Nick Talley, a gastroenterologist, says governments have still only done the “bare minimum” and more drastic measures were needed.

He is joined by Dr Angelo Virgona, chair of the NSW branch of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists.

“The spread of this virus is going to lead to a catastrophe,” he says. “Health workers are on the frontline. We need to protect them.”