It began in a dramatic fashion with last Sunday's announcement the national cabinet recommendation against "non-essential" gatherings of more than 500 people was now the law and that people entering the country had to self-isolate for 14 days.

By week's end the ban on gatherings had been finessed to exclude indoor non-essential events involving more than 100 people.

A lot of autumn weddings are now on hold, funerals are going to be problematic and a night out with friends may be off the agenda for the duration.

Meanwhile panic buying, which had already made toilet paper, hand sanitiser and antiseptic wipes almost impossible to obtain, was accelerating with rice and pasta becoming the next items to be targeted.

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And, while all this was happening, the number of cases continued to climb. So too did the fatalities although, thankfully, they were still in single digits at the weekend.

During the week public criticism of alleged "mixed messaging", in many cases the result of governments responding to changing circumstances, as they had always said they would, continued. Wednesday's hour-long, media conference by the PM and the chief medical officer, was a major turning point. Mr Morrison took direct aim at the hoarders, telling them to stop their panic buying. He also warned any emergency measures rolled out now would likely be in place until mid-September at least.

Given we have closed the border to everybody but citizens and permanent residents, and banned all non-essential overseas travel, this is a sobering thought. Any decision to close schools and universities should be deferred for as long as possible. By Thursday it was obvious the appeal to stop panic buying was falling on deaf ears. Supermarkets were packed and, in many places, even shelves of perishables such as meat and fruit and vegetables were being stripped bare. If this continues it is likely that by this time next week some form of rationing over and above the restrictions already being put in place by the stores themselves will be in force.

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