Safely relaxing social distancing comes down to the numbers

May 2021

Your house number could be the key to the safe relaxation of COVID-19-related restrictions if governments follow a new exit strategy proposal published in the British Medical Journal. Co-authored by Professor Adrian Barnett, a statistician with QUT’s School of Public Health and Social Work, An exit strategy for relaxing physical distancing measures to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2 suggests governments around the globe use an ‘odds-and-evens’ approach to allowing people to head back to work and enjoy other activities after weeks of lockdown. “Governments in Australia and elsewhere are seeking to balance competing priorities. Social distancing has certainly been proven to reduce the rate of transmission of COVID-19 but has had a negative impact on the economy and created other health issues,” said Professor Barnett. “A major problem with relaxing restrictions too quickly is the limited evidence on how this will affect transmission of the virus and no-one wants to see another wave of infection and deaths which would lead to a return to lockdown. “We propose an interim solution in which allowing people to return to a less-restricted life should be based on odd or even house numbers. For example, people in odd numbered houses have relaxed restrictions on odd days in the month (1st, 3rd, etc) and people in even number houses on even days (2nd, 4th, etc). “This halves the population mixing, which reduces the risk of a new wave occurring, and it creates useful data for judging whether restrictions can be further relaxed or should be tightened.”

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Artists in Residence Science Program

The Artist in Residence Science program supports creative collaborative residencies between professional artists and creative practitioners with scientists and the diverse science networks, researchers, data and infrastructure.

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About the exhibition

The 2012–2018 Art meets Science Exhibitions provided an opportunity for artists from across South East Queensland to join the artists participating in the Artist in Residence Science program in showcasing their recent artworks that demonstrate a strong art-science connection. Find out more about the artists and artworks featured in these exhibitions in the 2015-2018 Art meets Science exhibition catalogues.