Total elimination of COVID-19 'not realistic' before vaccine: Deputy CMO

Totally eliminating coronavirus from Australia is not a realistic goal until a vaccine has been rolled out, one of Australia's top doctors has said.

Speaking to the Weekend Today show this morning, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Nick Coatsworth said eliminating COVID-19 would mean no cases for a minimum of four incubation periods of the virus – or at least eight weeks.

"That is an unrealistic scenario when there is 12 billion cases and climbing around the world," he said.

The comments come after leading epidemiologist Professor Tony Blakely warned of to expect "wave after wave" of COVID-19 if Australia failed to eliminate the virus.

Speaking to 9News Melbourne on Friday, he called on Victoria to impose an even harsher lockdown in order to wipe out COVID-19 from the state.

"If we don't achieve elimination, and we get to suppression, we will have an outbreak again in two months' time, four months' time, six months' time," he said.

"It will just keep on going like this until we actually get a vaccine."

The professor pointed to New Zealand and Taiwan as examples of areas that had successfully eliminated the virus.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has remained adamant that Australia will not pursuing an elimination strategy, instead using extensive testing, contract tracing and social distancing to locate and then suppress outbreaks.

Dr Coatsworth backed this approach today, saying Australia was working to achieve "suppression to the point of elimination".

This means Australians should expect to see ongoing small clusters moving forward.

"What we are aiming for – and what we have achieved in seven out of eight jurisdictions – is suppression to the point of elimination, suppression to the point of absence of community transmission," he said.

"That's the setting that we believe is the best balance between public health and getting society moving again."