On January 23, 2020 Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison in a press release stated a “human coronavirus with pandemic potential” was added to the official Biosecurity (Listed Human Diseases) Determination 2016 under the Biosecurity Act of 2015, to enable the use of enhanced border measures. The same day flight MU 749 landed in Sydney Airport coming from Wuhan, China. This determination allowed a Biosecurity emergency to be called in March 18, 2020. [1, 2, 3, 4]
Chief Medical Officer, Dr Brandan Murphy stated “Chinese authorities confirmed 571 cases of coronavirus infections and 17 deaths… and have now stopped transport out of Wuhan city.…There have been no reported confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Australia as yet.”
At the time Australia was still recovering from major bush fires.
[SARS-CoV-2 or the disease COVID-19 was never added to the notifiable Communicable Diseases Network Australia (CDNA) case registry, but SARS and MERS are!]