Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison said thousands of Australian lives have been saved as a result of the country’s coronavirus restrictions but a million Australians were forced out of work, and this is the issue that now needs to be addressed.

“We are trying to find what a safe economy looks like,” Mr Morrison said following the National Cabinet meeting.

He said that returning back to the workplace will result in an increase of infections in some areas, “you will see outbreaks occur in other places, that is to be expected,” he said, adding that it is important to work together to ensure a “COVID-19 safe workplace”.

Mr Morrison announced that 5 million people had already downloaded the COVIDSafe tracing app today. “That’s a welcome response, and we would like to see a bit more,” Mr Morrison said, and outlined the benefits of the app.

He outlined the cost of the coronavirus restrictions to the Australian economy. “By the end of the day, more than a million Australians will have had claims processed for jobseeker,” he said “Around 5 million are estimated to be on jobkeeper. One million, or more, are accessing their own super, of almost $10m. 384,000 businesses are accessing around $7m in cashflow assistance, and that is just to date,” he said.

He said that there can be no stop-start approach to the economy. “The last thing that businesses want, and this is common feedback that (adviser) Nev (Power) and I get is what is called the sawtooth which means you are open, you shut, you open, you shut, that is not good for business,” he said. “There needs to be the certainty to keep moving forward all the time. So to have that you need to have these things in place.

“What we are talking about today is further encouraging business to do just that. Thanks to the AHA and the restaurant and caterers that advice will go off to the medical expert panel and will be part of the process we will work through to get back to a position when pubs and clubs and restaurants or cafes in the future can be open. As I say, we are not making those decisions today. We have had some good discussions on that today but we still have quite a bit of work to do.”

READ MORE: Prime Minister Scott Morrison says restrictions will be lifted earlier than expected

Asked about the relaxation of restrictions, Mr Morrison said that decisions would be made at the national cabinet meeting on Friday. He said that “states and territories have operated on different timetables”, reflective of the “case characteristics in each of those states and territories.” He added that on Friday he will seek to have “as consistent national position as possible”.

“I would expect that on Friday there will be some restrictions formally eased which many states have already moved on others I get to move on, I think that framework will assist states but our hope that where we get to on Friday can lay out much more of the roadmap for Australians so they can see what is happening for weeks and months ahead,” he said.

He said that at the end of the day, “states have sovereignty over decisions that fall specifically within their domain”.

“The trade-off that they are making between people having jobs and the impact of the containment of the coronavirus,” Mr Morrison said. “My view has always been this, and I’ve said it from this podium many times, just having a low number of cases is not success particularly when you have a lot of people out of work like your friend today. That is the curve that I’m looking to address now. We have had great success on flattening the health curve and that is great and we all wanted that but it has come at a price and we have to now start balancing that up.”

READ MORE: More than a million download the COVIDSafe tracing app hours after it is launched

Overseas travel is expected to open with New Zealand first which Mr Morrison said that two-way travel between the two countries is “1.4 million a year both ways, almost as many Kiwis come here is Australians go there. Especially for states like Queensland there is a much greater share of that tourism travel that comes out of New Zealand into Queensland, and as we build up our economies again and especially for trans-Tasman travel and what it means for the airlines that will be important to support jobs in those sectors,” he said, echoing the words of NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.