Infectious Diseases Physician and former National Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Nick Coatsworth spoke with Oliver Peterson on Perth Live to discuss WA’s current Covid challenges and what the new normal will look like.

Two years deep into the pandemic, Dr Nick Coatsworth believes it’s finally time to look forward to the end of this Covid wave and to do so, we need to stop making Covid the centre of our conversations.

“What Covid has done is unpack other issues in our health system, where if we keep focusing on Covid itself we might miss some of the real opportunities to reform our system,” he told Oly.

Oly further asked Dr Coatsworth what his perspective is on the current caution and anxiety that’s in the air due to a flux of Covid cases and hospital admissions.

“I think it’s clear that unless there is a substantial change in Covid-19, we will not go back to any severe restrictions. Essentially we would need a new pandemic virus to consider lockdowns,” Dr Coatsworth said.

“You’ve said it Oly, we have to live with it. Which means we have to have policies that enable us to do so and we don’t have that at the moment.”

Press PLAY to hear his perspective on our health system crisis and protecting your child against Covid