I'm also in Australia and I work in healthcare.
I'm very concerned that the Federal Government's advice is vastly inadequate to nip this in the bud. I just watched the federal Minister for Health and the federal Chief Medical Officer interviewed on TV. My take is that they essentially said that there is currently very little risk in Australia but they will let us know when there is. I feel as though they are being a bit blasé. The Chief Medical Officer actually said that it's still OK to go to the movies and to shake hands. I shake my head.
Australia has ~250 known cases today, the vast majority of which have had overseas travel or direct Covid contact. However, testing in Australia has been heavily restricted to:
1) People returning from China, South Korea and Iran who have gone on to develop symptoms
2) Direct contacts of known cases who have gone on to develop symptoms.
So there has been no way to detect community spread. It's like we are shining a torch on the highest risk group but the status rest of the population can't be seen, so we have no warning when community spread takes off, as it inevitably will (or has). There is most likely an iceberg of community spread which is still under the radar. The first we will know of it is when large numbers of people die.
It's likely that there is already or very soon will be significant under the radar community spread of the disease. If you wait until there are widespread deaths or even widespread recognised cases before you institute a lockdown, you have missed the boat:
https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca
I have cancelled 2 education meetings in the last week. I'm highly exposed in my area of healthcare so I have isolated myself from my family. We have pulled our children out of school.
Even if there is not yet widespread community transmission, a travel ban to a few countries is currently inadequate. The virus is spreading worldwide. In fact China and South Korea have almost controlled community spread with stringent social distancing and may at this stage be safer than many countries which are not banned. Our Home Affairs minister recently returned from the USA and developed Covid19 a few days later.
I will be amazed if a lockdown doesn't occur at some stage. Earlier is much much much much much better. For health outcomes and for how quickly the economy will recover. Every day counts. You cannot allow your hospitals to become overwhelmed or many people (including many heath care professionals) will die.
I suspect that this disease will be a massive hit to the economy. I'd be very surprised and relieved if there is not a recession. $17B will be a drop in the ocean if the disease becomes widespread.
I'm pretty worried that the tsunami will hit soon. It looks to me like the water is receding into the ocean. I am certainly not as blazé as our Department of Health appears to be. Nor are many of my colleagues.