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> Australia and NZ have the huge advantage of no land borders. Australia had a major outbreak in Victoria in July last year. Victoria has a 2,550km land border

> Australia and NZ have the huge advantage of no land borders. Australia had a major outbreak in Victoria in July last year. Victoria has a 2,550km land border with other states, including with South Australia, which peaked at 10 active cases over the same time period. The evidence shows that strict quarantining and early lockdowns prevent spread even when there's an outbreak on the other side of a land border, and it also shows that being an island doesn't help at all if you don't do this (see also: the United Kingdom). I don't know why people constantly act like Australia and New Zealand only succeeded because they're islands when they were locking cities down at single digit case counts while the United States and India were packing stadiums full of people when they were getting tens of thousands of new infections a day.

atweiden 5y ago
If being an island state was really the only thing that mattered here, why is Hawaii not at Covid zero? Why is Alaska not at Covid zero? (Despite not being an island, AK is still highly comparable to OZ.)
- URSpider94 5y ago
  It’s hard to appreciate just how strict the lockdown measures in places like New Zealand and Taiwan have been. People are driven from the airport directly to a hotel, then someone comes and checks on them and they monitor the front door. Even in Hawaii, the arrival quarantine was just in whatever resort you were staying in, and was almost entirely self-imposed.
  - sellyme 5y ago
    On the other side of the coin, as someone in Australia I couldn't believe it when I heard that in many other countries you can "quarantine" in a house with other people who are free to go about their day! Of course that's not going to work...
jaimex2 5y ago
An important bit of information is Victoria indebted itself heavily to contain its outbreaks. The state is in $150B worth of debt and already increasing its taxes and fines to compensate. It also had the largest exodus of people ever seen. About 11,000 leaving per quarter. The fallout from businesses isn't know yet either, that'll become apparent after EOFY.

atweiden 5y ago

If being an island state was really the only thing that mattered here, why is Hawaii not at Covid zero? Why is Alaska not at Covid zero? (Despite not being an island, AK is still highly comparable to OZ.)

URSpider94 5y ago
It’s hard to appreciate just how strict the lockdown measures in places like New Zealand and Taiwan have been. People are driven from the airport directly to a hotel, then someone comes and checks on them and they monitor the front door. Even in Hawaii, the arrival quarantine was just in whatever resort you were staying in, and was almost entirely self-imposed.
- sellyme 5y ago
  On the other side of the coin, as someone in Australia I couldn't believe it when I heard that in many other countries you can "quarantine" in a house with other people who are free to go about their day! Of course that's not going to work...

jaimex2 5y ago

An important bit of information is Victoria indebted itself heavily to contain its outbreaks. The state is in $150B worth of debt and already increasing its taxes and fines to compensate. It also had the largest exodus of people ever seen. About 11,000 leaving per quarter. The fallout from businesses isn't know yet either, that'll become apparent after EOFY.