Australia did not overestimate the risk the deadly coronavirus posed to the country, Health Minister Greg Hunt has said.
There have been 102 deaths in Australia from just over 7000 confirmed cases.
The country has been shut down for weeks, causing huge job losses, in an effort to stop the spread of the virus.
Mr Hunt said people should just look abroad to see “the speed of spread, the extent of contagion” and the devastation it can cause.
“What we have done is planned for the worst and been able to deliver the best,” he said.
“It shows what we have avoided in Australia could have been catastrophic on a scale unimagined.
“Australians would have suffered not just an outbreak of disease, but huge human suffering, economic suffering.”
Mr Hunt applauded the government’s approach, the health system and its workers and the Australian public.
