The longer I think about COVID-19, the more bewildered I become and the angrier I get about the attitude of nonchalance and bravado demonstrated by many people do this wicked disease.

In particular, my anger is fuelled by people who should be in quarantine but breach the regulations surrounding their isolation.

This is now being added to by people who are endeavouring to cross locked down state borders by stealth, deception and by telling outright lies about their situations.

In Queensland:

• 125 skipped quarantine early.

• 25 were not in quarantine.

• 185 gave false information about where they were quarantining.

• 200 have disappeared into the state without a trace.

• 55 have been turned around at the border.

• One person was in the boot of a car.

In Victoria:

• 90% did not self isolate after feeling

unwell and before being tested.

• 53% did not isolate after the test and before the results confirmed them as COVID-19 positive.

• The flouting if restrictions Is epidemic.

Some breaching may be accidental but most is knowingly deliberate. Those who are apprehended deserve punishment that fits the seriousness of their crimes. The issuing of fines is a waste of time because in most instances these fines will never ever be paid.

What these people need (and unfortunately this cannot happen because of the democratic nature of our country, in which the rights of individuals are held to be paramount and more important than the needs of our collective society as a whole) is to experience of corporal punishment.

Caning of offenders would deter their further quarantine avoidance attempts. And it would discourage others who might consider testing the boundaries of restrictions.

It is these people who are putting all states and territories at terrible risk of spreading the contagion.