At the time, the global tally of cases was 660,000.

On Sunday, it was 7.78 million, or almost 12 times what it was when our troubles were at their worst.

It is impossible to tell how far we are along the global case curve, because as you can see from the adjacent graph, record for daily infections are still being set, most recently on Friday when the Johns Hopkins University global dashboard hit its latest record peak, of 138,400 new cases.

Australia had 4600 cases by March 28.

In mid-June we have less than twice that number, with 7300 cases.

There can be dangers in cherry-picking statistics, but these comparisons reinforce a message that the Newcastle Herald believes it is important to remember: that a combination of our island isolation and the restrictions our governments put in place have meant Australia having a very mild brush, so far, with COVID-19.

A small spike in case numbers in recent days may turn out to be nothing more than statistical noise, but the Black Lives Matters rallies of the past two weekends have been criticised by politicians - especially Coalition MPs - as irresponsible risks in the spread of coronavirus.

At the same time, however, the National Cabinet on Friday cleared the way for a return to crowds of up to 10,000 at sporting matches, with the NSW government announcing its new arrangements would start in a little over a fortnight's time on Wednesday, July 1.

Although the circumstances in each instance are different - social distancing can be practised in a stadium in ways that won't happen at large rallies - some would say there is an obvious inconsistency in calling out Black Lives Matters protests on the one hand, while encouraging the imminent return of mass spectator sport on the other.

Ultimately, whether it's a public protest or a Newcastle Knights match, all mass gatherings - indeed, virtually everything we do outside our front doors - are now viewed through the prism of COVID-19 risk.

But unless coronavirus comes roaring back in Australia, medical advice will return to being just one of many inputs into the decisions our government must make on a daily basis.

We are lucky the pressure to reopen the Australian economy is not taking place, as it is in many countries, where the pandemic is still clearly out of control.

ISSUE: 39,633.

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