A group of leading epidemiologists have urged Victoria to push on towards ridding the state of SARS-CoV-2, rather than settling for suppression, outlining a 10-point plan to try to achieve elimination.

Professor Tony Blakely, an epidemiologist and public health specialist at the University of Melbourne, and colleagues, write that the state could attempt to achieve elimination in the six-week lockdown period.  

But it would mean more stringent measures than currently imposed, including closing all schools, department stores and a tighter definition of essential workers. 

“Melbourne and Victoria should not waste the opportunity this lockdown presents,” they write in the Medical Journal of Australia.