COVID hotspot
This term has been around for some months now. I thought I would hold off until the National Cabinet defined what comprised a COVID hotspot, but they found it all too hard so I will have to go it alone. The clearest example so far of a COVID hotspot has been the Melbourne public housing towers in which everyone was in isolation and police patrolled the perimeter. But the term loosely covers any location or area in which there is a heightened risk of catching COVID-19, based on the increased frequency of positive cases, usually occurring as a cluster. The problem is that the centre of the hotspot is easy to identify but the perimeter is not. It is therefore difficult to know how to isolate the hotspot from the broader community. There are obvious reasons for wanting to do this. It would be better to shut down particular suburbs rather than a whole city, in terms of economic activity. But the practicalities of doing this have led to a lot of discussion with no resolution.
By early September the National Cabinet had agreed that a COVID-19 hotspot is identified by having 30 cases over three days. In rural areas this was reduced to 9 cases over three days.