Canberra, Nov 22 (TIWN) A leading infectious expert on Monday warned that Australia could face a flu epidemic as it opens its international borders.

The report by Sheena Sullivan from the University of Melbourne, which was published in the Medical Journal of Australia (MJA), showed that strict public health measures targeting Covid-19 have effectively eliminated all local transmission of influenza strains in Australia over the last 19 months, reports Xinhua news agency.  “As the influenza incubation period, infectious period, and serial interval are short, the current duration of hotel quarantine (14 days) has prevented people (from) leaving quarantine while still infectious,” wrote Sullivan.