These were the words of Aldous Huxley in his novel Brave New World. While we are not facing a new world of the kind Huxley spoke about, human kind is certainly faced with the stark reality the world which we held dear a month or a week ago has changed dramatically. At least for the foreseeable future.

The rapid spread of the coronavirus around the globe has prompted nations to take drastic measures to restrict the spread. In Australia governments are implementing stringent measures around our daily lives to try and ease the spread and therefore its corresponding impact on the health system.

It is incumbent on us all to play our part and do whatever we can to assist. We all have a role to play whether that be as a citizen, a community leader, an employee or employer.

With that in mind at The Standard, we have considered what we can do to best protect staff and the community.

Across our business we have taken a number of measures that are intended to ensure we look after the health and welfare of our staff while continuing to meet the needs of our audience and advertising customers at this time.

Among those measures is our office being closed to the public and our staff working from home. With technology these days we can do most things remotely and virtually, including news gathering and publishing of news both in print and across our digital platforms. We are adapting to continue producing news the best and safest way we can during these uncertain times. We are also delivering the news regarding coronavirus free to our readers online.

While these are challenging times commercially for many businesses, we want to ensure we get the vital information in our community to as many as possible. However, if you'd like to support local journalism it would be wonderful too if you were kind enough to consider becoming a subscriber.

As a community, we will get through this. But first we need to stop panicking and support each other.