Two years, one month and nine days after COVID-19 arrived in Canberra, the community has been given the strongest signal yet the pandemic is over. In reality, of course, it's not quite done.
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The changes to close contact isolation rules, which in essence mean only those who have COVID-19 will need to stay isolated, show the government is prepared to accept a level of risk that allows life to be lived almost how it was in 2019.
The virus can still have a high - and devastating - impact on individuals, but the community-wide risk is much lower now. Relaxing the rules again is a recognition of this.
NSW and Victoria will again lead the way on the changes, and the ACT will follow for consistency.
Public health management is not about setting rules that are perfect for an ideal world - in that place, COVID was eradicated in the weeks after it was discovered. It is about balancing competing interests and risks where COVID did spread and where imperfect humans must manage living alongside it.
More than half of Canberrans may have had COVID-19 already, experts have suggested, noting the official testing numbers have no chance of capturing the full extent of the virus' attack rate.
The overwhelming majority of people in the ACT came forward to get vaccinated. Community protection is good. Booster shot take up has not been as quick as health authorities would have hoped, so it could be better. But it is good.
The social justification for heavy handed restrictions against manageable COVID-19 variants is gone. The justification for the lighter measures is also fast waning. There is a good chance the new close contact rules will make only a small difference to the amount of COVID in the community.
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This does not mean the future will be easy. The world remains in a precarious place, though. To sincerely suggest the pandemic is over would be daft.
Professor Adrian Esterman, the chair of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of South Australia, said this week it was "pot luck" a new and more virulent variant of COVID-19 had not arrived in the country.
If and when that does happen, health authorities will have a difficult task of justifying tighter restrictions and getting people to comply. Pushing against the "We went through two years of hell and now this?" attitude is a tall order.
Public health experts might recommend reintroducing them quickly but if a fed-up community and an unwilling government holds back, the pandemic goes on longer - the damage inflicted will be worse.
The art of managing this lies in the messaging. Good messaging will still feature plenty of advice, transparent data and frequent updates. Otherwise the community will come to believe the pandemic is over and behave accordingly.
Careful reminders will be needed that it remains prudent to be careful even when the rules allow us to throw more caution to the wind.
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Jasper Lindell
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
