Despite these measures, the daily case counts rose sharply in Australia during the first half of March. While the vast majority of these cases were connected to travellers returning to Australia from overseas, localised community transmission had been reported in areas of Sydney (NSW) and Melbourne (VIC) (Australian Government Department of Health, 2020c). Crude plots of the cumulative number of cases by country showed Australia on an early trajectory similar to the outbreaks experienced in China, Europe and the United States, where health systems had become or were becoming overwhelmed (Australian Government Department of Health, 2020f).