"Elimination means not having sustained domestic transmission,"Professor MacIntyre said.
"Australia can achieve this,but it would require a demonstration of a sustained period of low disease incidence - probably a year or more."
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In that time,she said,authorities would need to maintain high levels of testing and contact tracing,keep international borders closed,continue with social distancing and potentially introduce"universal face mask use".
"If you want to keep things under control,we really need to make sure we track and identify all chains of transmission in the community that are not linked to obvious outbreaks or returned travellers,"Professor MacIntyre said.
She said a high level of testing,including of"asymptomatic,high-risk contacts",was essential,with the fact 80 per cent of cases were mild or asymptomatic meaning"there will be cases of transmission that hasn't been picked up,that's so mild it hasn't come to the attention of anyone."
Federal and state governments are pursuing a potential"travel bubble"with New Zealand,whose Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern last month declared it had effectively eliminated the coronavirus as there was no undetected community transmission of COVID-19.