Australians will be banned from traveling overseas under a further crackdown on trips as the government tries to stop the spread of the CCP virus, also known as the coronavirus.
Exceptions will be made for aid workers, some other government and commercial workers, and people seeking to go overseas on compassionate grounds.
Advice was already in place, with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade recommending Australians not travel, but the new measure will make it an enforced ban.
The precise timing of the ban is yet to be determined but it is expected to occur on Wednesday.
“The number of people who are leaving Australia now is very, very low,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Tuesday. “But it strikes me on those numbers there are people defying that advice and looking to go overseas on leisure travel.
“They can’t do that because when they come home, they put Australians at risk.”
Asked whether Border Force was doing appropriate checks to limit the CCP virus coming into Australia, Morrison said the arrivals were being managed well but more resources would be rolled out.
“All those who are arriving … are required to go into self-isolation by public health order at a state level,” he said.
“That’s where they need to transfer to immediately—not to go via the shops, not to pop in and see a friend on the way home, not to go for a wander around the park – you go straight home and you self-isolate for 14 days.”
NTD refers to the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, as the CCP virus because the Chinese Communist Party’s coverup and mismanagement allowed the virus to spread throughout China and create a global pandemic.
Latest Australian Action on the CCP Virus:
BUSINESS
- From midnight on Wednesday food courts in shopping centers will only be available for takeaway food. No sitting.
- Auction houses will shut. Auctions and open house inspections are banned.
- Outdoor and indoor markets are banned while rules around major food markets will be addressed by states and territories.
- Personal services such as beauty therapy, tanning, waxing, nail salons, spas and tattoo parlours (but not physiotherapy) are banned.
- Hairdressers and barbers can continue but must strictly manage social distancing and restrict the amount of time a patron can be in the premises to no more than 30 minutes.
- Amusement parks and arcades, and indoor and outdoor play centres must close.
- Boot camps and personal training must be limited to 10 people and enforce social distancing.
- Social sports such as large groups of people playing soccer in a park are banned.
- Galleries, museums, libraries, youth centres, community halls, clubs, RSLs and swimming pools must close.
SOCIAL DISTANCING
- Weddings can continue to be conducted where it is just the couple the celebrant and two witnesses, no more than five people.
- Funerals are limited to no more than 10 people.
SCHOOLS
- It is safe to send children to school up to the end of the term.
- But some pupil-free days will be needed to plan distance learning.
- Schools will reopen after the term break with a mix of distance learning and in-school learning for all “essential workers.”
- PM to meet with teachers and other sector representatives about keeping schools open and protecting staff.
ESSENTIAL WORKERS
- Everyone who still has a job is an essential worker.
TRAVEL
- The official “do no travel” warning is now an outright ban on overseas travel, with some exceptions such as aid workers and compassionate travel. Exact time for ban to start yet to be set.
EXPORTS
- New offence of profiteering and seeking to export goods overseas, relating to such things as medical supplies and masks.
By Katina Curtis and Paul Osborne
NTD staff contributed to this report
