Pope's cartoon on page 13 of the same edition predictably belittled the Australian Prime Minister.

Your journalist and cartoonist seem to be unaware of the significant differences between Australia and New Zealand.

There is the vast difference in populations and area. Australia has about 24.6 million people in a massive continent. New Zealand has under five million people on two relatively small islands.

Australia has many widely separated communities, many of which have very different needs in times like this.

The New Zealand parliament only has one chamber or house. Australia has two with different roles.

It is much easier for New Zealand to pass urgent legislation without minority parties or independents being able to delay it (as they can do in our Senate). And, most importantly, New Zealand has one central government. We are a federation with powers divided between the Commonwealth and the various states and territories.

An Australian Prime Minister has to work with eight state and territory leaders. Ms Ardern does not operate under similar constraints.

How about giving the PM a fair go and avoiding comparisons of chalk and cheese during these crisis?

Broulee was besieged by visitors, many from the ACT, on the weekend.

The Eurobodalla Shire has no ventilators, and no fully equipped ICU beds. Roughly 30 percent of the population is aged over 60. If visitors come down here and bring the virus with them they will probably be responsible for deaths.

Canberra has wonderful hospitals and great recreation spaces in parks, on bike paths and the lakes.

Please show some responsibility. Stay home. Stay away from the South Coast. Without a better public attitude Easter could be a disaster for Eurobodalla residents.

This is a plea from a South Coast resident to the good citizens of Canberra. Under normal circumstances we welcome you with open arms. You bring life, culture and, very importantly, money to our beautiful Eurobodalla and Shoalhaven shires.

Many of you retire here to enjoy our beautiful coastline, golf courses and fishing opportunities. I did the same, along with thousands of others. Unfortunately we are getting on a bit and, should the virus impact the South Coast, the consequences would be devastating.

Even if you own a "weekender" down here, please follow the directions of our politicians and stay at home. It is in the best interests of all.

If Nicholas Stuart ("The big problem with flattening the curve", March 25, p21) is going to switch from defence commentary to epidemiology, he needs to be more accurate.

He claims every person with COVID-19 will infect 2.5 others. Presumably he is quoting the reproductive number R0, which is a statistical average based on mathematical models, not a fixed certainty.

It is highly environmentally and behaviour dependent.

Current studies have given a whole range of estimates from 1.4 to 3.9 (see Wikipedia "Basic reproduction number").

Other researchers have estimated R0s greater than six. Moreover it is quite possible for one person in a bus or plane to infect many.

Angela Kueter-Luks (Letters March 25) proposed health insurance companies could defer the proposed premium increase due on April 1 because of the nation's precarious economic circumstances.

I'd be far happier if the government took action to ensure all those able to, actually paid the Medicare levy.

There are thousands of very well off people who, because of the Howard/Costello generous tax concessions which have been continued by the present government, can reduce their income through family trusts, negative gearing and share imputation credits to a level where they pay no income tax.

Consequently they don't have to pay the Medicare levy.

Mr Morrison, Mr Frydenberg, and Mr Hunt should take steps to amend the tax provisions so that from June 30 everyone who is financially able to pay the Medicare levy should do so. Are the ordinary tax-payers going to be left to foot the bill for the billions of dollars being provided to ramp up the health system to deal with COVID-19?

I have nothing but high praise for the aseptic practises of the staff in the Zita Mary cancer clinic which my husband and I have attended over the last five days.

But I was absolutely appalled that the new "check-in" desk for all visitors and day patients at the front entrance to Calvary Public Hospital required double handling (sign in and sign out) by everyone arriving and departing.

It seemed to me to be a "Typhoid Mary" arrangement. All visitors had to touch the book and the pen twice. I had to flip back three pages to "sign out".

I have no problem with keeping a check on visitors. But surely minimum contact can be maintained by making certain the official manning the desk is the only one allowed to touch the pen and the book.

How many critical care beds do we have in the ACT after so much money was spent on the tram? Italy is struggling with COVID-19 with 14 beds/100,000 people. The UK has half that number. It will soon be in deep trouble.

The UK has a Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) which groups people from one (very fit) to nine (terminally ill).

Who gets critical care treatment is then based on this scale. In the absence of enough beds, a line is drawn at a CFS score of four, Vulnerable, but still living independently (CFS five - mildly frail) is the cutoff in UK for rationed treatment. These are people who typically have walkers and require assistance for home and so on. In Italy it is basically anyone who is 80.

How many ICU beds has the Barr government left us with to cope with this pandemic? As someone, I think with a UK CFS score of four, it would be nice to know what might befall me if I get the virus.

What are we playing at? We rightly bring in severe restrictions on movement and proximity in relation to the virus but leave a gaping hole in relation to hairdressers.

Surely our medical experts are not saying that these venues are safe places in relation to transmission. By their very nature they require close contact.

Let's get serious and not continue with these gradual restrictions and leaving holes in them. Vanity can wait. Lives cannot.

Re the two page Coles advertisement (March 30, pages 2-3) explaining their "keeping everyone safe" policy.

I fully support the desire to keep both staff and customers as safe as possible during the shopping experience. However my experience was far from satisfactory last week.

The checkout operator raced my purchasers through at breakneck speed. She was asking me for my Fly Buys at the same I was asked to pack my own bags. There was no acknowledgement that, as a customer, I'm entitled to check the prices as they go through.

Checkouts are not set up to do bag packing from the customer side. My goods piled up and eventually started to fall down all over the place. It all came through faster than a speeding bullet.

Coles, if you want to retain my loyalty, redesign your checkouts and retrain your staff for the COVID-19 world.

I can sympathise with the frustration of returning travellers having to undergo mandatory isolation. However, I cannot sympathise with the whinging or carping of some.

My brother is 25 days into isolation. He does not have COVID-19. He is in his early 70's and has a significant co-morbidity which places him at high risk. He is running short of food but is consumed by anxiety about going out to get more.

I am sure that he would appreciate being in a five star hotel, getting regular meals or food deliveries plus being health checked daily.

Returning travellers made the choice to live, work or holiday overseas. Please stop moaning. There are others far worse off than you.

When will The Canberra Times's About Town feature be merged with Times Past'?

Panic not, Ann Darbyshire. (Letters, March 30). Cataldo's are only closing for the duration of the coronavirus outbreak.

Woolworths will be employing ex-Qantas staff. Will this lead to business class aisles in the supermarket?

COVID-19 in the Barossa Valley? Forget the toilet paper; get me to the grog shop.

Talk about confusing times; delusional people abound. I can't even be sure if there is white man in the Orange House or an orange man in the White House.

I hate to say it, given the way Canberrans feel about the guy, but if ScoMo can pull us through the coronavirus crisis in reasonable shape some people will want to put up statues of him in parks and town squares. Imagine the outrage.

After years of federal governments doing their best to stop the boats we've finally gone global. Unfortunately there are still Australians on some of the boats.

Why not get all the elderly in lock-down to make cotton face masks? I believe in the last war the elderly were asked to make jumpers and socks. This would give them a sense of purpose and help with shortages. What other items could people in lock-down help with?

Thanks to COVID-19 we now know Australia has an abundance of home grown experts. We can also access a plethora of overseas experts. They are thick on the ground. Best of all, we can pick and choose our experts to support our preferred stance on anything. It is the age of the expert.

Hey, all you critics of the nanny state. We miss you. Come on, speak up.

Thumbs down to A Hardy (Letters, March 30) for his criticism of our political leaders during this crisis. Thumbs up to Doug Hurst (Letters, March 30) for voicing the true feeling of many Australians. The PM is doing the best that is humanly possible.

I had cause to go to a major suburban shopping centre on Friday morning. There were a lot of school-age kids there. So much for home-based, online, learning.

Tradies and barbers are not just essential: they're also expendable.

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