Strengthening Australia's hotel quarantine system to ensure there are little to no breaches is paramount if the country wants to mitigate the risk of community infection, says Infectious Disease Expert Peter Collignon.
"There's been quite a number of breaches both here and in New Zealand. We need to decrease that," he said.
"There are lots of things you can do to decrease the risk of it coming here, but the reality is, we're not going to be able to do that forever, we're still going to have to allow Australian residents to return from the UK.
"One to two per cent are carrying the virus - most aren't - so we have to handle that in a way that's reasonable for them too."
Mr Collignon said studies were not yet entirely conclusive the UK strain of the virus spread more aggressively than other strains.
"There's been quite a number of breaches both here and in New Zealand. We need to decrease that," he said.
"There are lots of things you can do to decrease the risk of it coming here, but the reality is, we're not going to be able to do that forever, we're still going to have to allow Australian residents to return from the UK.
"One to two per cent are carrying the virus - most aren't - so we have to handle that in a way that's reasonable for them too."
Mr Collignon said studies were not yet entirely conclusive the UK strain of the virus spread more aggressively than other strains.
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