Coronavirus spread sparks public gathering, overseas travel advice

Frank Chung and Shannon Molloy

2-3 minutes

An infectious disease expert says Prime Minister Scott Morrison should be tested for the coronavirus and Australians need to "get real".
Speaking to A Current Affair on Friday night, Adjunct Professor Bill Bowtell from the Kirby Institute for Infection and Immunity described the coronavirus pandemic as "very serious" and said if the PM had spent any time with Peter Dutton, he needed to be checked out.
"If the Prime Minister has seen Mr Dutton then he should go off for a test and almost certainly it would be very wrong for him to attend an NRL game," he said.

Professor Bill Bowtell spoke to Karl Stefanovic on Friday night. Picture: A Current Affair
Mr Bowtell also urged Australians to "get real", saying everyone now had an obligation to protect themselves and their loved ones from any unnecessary exposure to COVID-19.
"Look we have to get real. I love Australian life, I love going to the NRL, I love going to the opera, I love it all. But I’m terribly sorry, it’s now all subordinate to the overwhelming obligation we all have to protect ourselves and our families and our loved ones from any action that might unnecessarily expose them to the coronavirus," he said.
"We can’t have a free and easy approach to this, and wait till Monday to do something, that’s what got the Italians into enormous trouble."
Addressing the ban on mass gatherings, Mr Bowtell said there was no reason to wait another 48 hours.
"There’s nothing wrong with now. The mass gatherings planned for tonight and this weekend should not go ahead … nobody should go to a mass gathering, the rugby or anything else, churches, this weekend in their own interests," he said.
He also called on the government to release all the documentation presented at Friday's COAG meeting.
"I find it hard to believe that responsible medical people would want to delay any mass gatherings until Monday. Maybe they did. But let the advice be out there, let’s see the modelling, let’s see the facts and figures. Make it accountable, contestable, honestly and openly defended.
"The truth is our best defence against the coronavirus. The culture of secrecy and of not telling the truth got us where we are today."

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