Журнал. World association for medical law. The COVID-19 pandemic. Volume 39 2

98 Medicine and Law Not everyone respected the lockdown laws and the paper includes some high profile individuals, identified as having broken the rules and incurred heavy penalties, including a NSW Cabinet Minister, who was fined $1,000 AUD plus losing his State Government Cabinet position due to contravention of the Public Health Act . There were 4,500 Australians fined a minimum of $1,000 AUD for breaches of social distancing rules. By mid May 2020, it was apparent that there were definite lessons to be learnt from the Coronavirus Pandemic and the paper maps out some of these while also pointing out that such lessons will continue to emerge from the Pandemic and may well alter the approach to Pandemics into the future. Keywords: Coronavirus; COVID-19; Pandemic; Australian Experience; Lessons Learnt BACKGROUND The first case of novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) [COVID-19] was reported in Australia on 25th January 2020 (1) , and was confirmed by the Victorian (VIC) Health Authorities. The information was conveyed to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and was related to a man who travelled to Melbourne fromWuhan, Guandong, China, on 19th January 2020 (1) . Three other people, also from Wuhan, tested positive in Sydney, New South Wales (NSW) on the same day (2) . At the time, the Federal Minister of Health, Greg Hunt, outlined a swift response and capacity for testing. The Australian Chief Medical Officer, Professor (Prof) Brendan Murphy indicated, “… Victoria has followed strict protocols, including isolating the affected person…” (1) . Overnight, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) raised travel alerts from Wuhan and Hubei Province, in China, to “…level 4 - do not travel…” and issued a Smart Traveller Bulletin on the virus outbreak, but its advice for China, as a whole, did not change (1) . By this stage, Chinese authorities had stopped all traffic from Hubei Province and the Australian Government released a statement that “.… all passengers on flights from other parts of China will be met and provided information on arrival…” (1) . Concurrently, information was posted at all entry points into Australia for passengers with symptoms on arrival or who had developed