Coronavirus: New Zealand follows Australia’s lead and bans travellers from China to protect the country
The announcement makes New Zealand the latest government to suspend travel from China despite no confirmed cases of coronavirus.
New Zealand joins a growing list of countries to ban travellers from China after Australia announced its own ban on Saturday.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced unprecedented new control measures that will see all non-Australians travelling from mainland China barred entry at the border in an attempt to stop the spread of coronavirus.
The official advice is now that Australians “do not travel” to mainland China.
The tough new measures, announced on Saturday afternoon, come as the number of Australians confirmed to have contracted coronavirus rose to 12 on Saturday, with three new cases across Victoria and South Australia.
A day later New Zealand announced that it was placing temporary entry restrictions on all foreign nationals that travelled through mainland China.
Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacina Ardern said the government’s travel advice to all New Zealanders was do not travel.
“We have been advised by health officials that while there are still a range of unknowns in the way the virus is being transmitted, we should take a precautionary approach and temporarily stop travel into New Zealand from mainland China, and of people who have recently been in China,” she said.
New Zealand currently has no confirmed cases of the virus meanwhile Australia has twelve cases.
New Zealand is looking into evacuating citizens from Wuhan, something that the Australian government is attempting to do also.
Mr Morrison announced last week that over 600 Australians in the Hubei Province would be evacuated to Christmas Island, Australian families were initially told they would be footing the $1,000 bill per person to fly from China to Australia.
However, treasurer Josh Frydenberg told ABC’s Insiders on Sunday morning that Mr Morrison was given the “incorrect advice” and people would not be charged.
“The Department of Foreign Affairs have publicly said they provided incorrect information,” he told the ABC program on Sunday.
Mr Frydenberg blamed the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for the incorrect information.
Less than an hour earlier, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton had told Sky News evacuees would be charged $1000, as Prime Minister Scott Morrison had said last week.
However, Mr Frydenberg said Beijing has yet to agree to the evacuation that would see Australians quarantined on Christmas Island.
“We’re working through the issues, but we hope that approval is imminent,” the treasurer said.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says evacuees from Wuhan now WONT be charged $1000. PM Morrison said this week they would. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton echoed that just this morning. Now the Treasurer says No. says DFAT does a “fantastic†job..but stuffed up its advice. #insiders
— Karen Middleton (@KarenMMiddleton) February 1, 2020
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says Australian evacuees from Wuhan won't be charged $1000 for the flight to Christmas Island. He blames DFAT for incorrect information, despite Peter Dutton saying the same thing this morning #auspol #insiders
— Tom McIlroy (@TomMcIlroy) February 1, 2020
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk today called for all flights to be banned from China while Qantas said it would suspend services to mainland China.
At a press conference late this afternoon, Mr Morrison said all foreign travellers who had left or passed through mainland China 14 days before arriving in Australia will now be denied entry to the country.
That will particularly hit the many Chinese tourists and students who regularly visit Australia.
Australian citizens, permanent residents and their immediate family will be exempt from the strict measures, Mr Morrison announced.
He said there would be “advanced screening and reception arrangements” at major airports
and all Australians arriving from China will be told to “self isolate” for 14 days to ensure they are not affected. The measures will be reviewed in a fortnight.
Travellers from Hong Kong, which has a border with mainland China, are not included in the ban. Australians can still travel to Hong Kong but they should exercise a “high degree of caution,” the Smart Traveller website advised.
But Australians are being told not to travel to mainland China at all.
The Government will make 500,000 masks available for airport and port staff and arriving passengers and handheld thermometers will be made available at impacted ports.
“Our first priority is the health, wellbeing and welfare of Australians; that comes first,” Mr Morrison said this afternoon.
“Our first responsibility is Australians and Australia’s national interests.”
Mr Morrison has stopped short of banning flights from mainland China entirely.
Nonetheless, Qantas and Air New Zealand have joined a growing list of carriers that will suspend all flights to and from mainland China in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.
‘REMAIN CALM’
Asked why the measures were being put in place only today, Mr Morrison said that up to now the virus has been mostly only found in the Hubei province of China that is centred on the ground zero city of Wuhan.
“The advice of the chief medical officer is that people who had been in mainland China prior to today are not presenting that risk. But the risk is beginning to escalate from now.”
He said Australians should “remain calm” about the risks of coronavirus.
“We have the best medical facilities, the best preparations, the best way of managing and maintaining things anywhere in the world,” he said.
Mr Morrison also said that all communities, including the Australian-Chinese community that has reportedly faced incidents of racism following the virus coming to light, should be supported.
TWELFTH CASE CONFIRMED IN AUSTRALIA
On Saturday afternoon, South Australian authorities said two people had been confirmed with coronavirus. That came just hours after Victorian health authorities confirmed a fourth case of coronavirus in the state.
The three new diagnoses brings the total number of cases nationwide to 12.
A woman in her 20s, who is a resident of Melbourne, is recovering at home with the respiratory illness.
She became ill two days after returning from Wuhan last Saturday. She was not infectious on her flight back to Victoria.
Thirteen people in Victoria are awaiting test results with 149 people given the green light.
In South Australia, the health department confirmed two cases of the virus on Saturday of a couple aged in their 60s, who have since been admitted to a public hospital.
New South Wales Health said on Saturday that there are four confirmed cases in the state and 12 cases under investigation. Of the four confirmed cases in the state, three people have now being discharged – a 53-year-old man, a 35-year-old man and 21-year-old woman. A 43-year-old male remains in hospital.
No new patients were confirmed overnight and 86 people who underwent tests for the virus have been cleared
In Queensland the Courier Mail has reported that eight boarders from a prestigious Brisbane school are in lockdown for a fortnight after they returned from either Hong Kong or mainland China.
John Paul College principal Karen Spiller said the move was a precaution and none of the boys had shown symptoms of the virus.
QANTAS SUSPENDS FLIGHTS
A Qantas 747 is preparing to leave for Wuhan via Hong Kong to allow some of the 600 Australians in the city to leave if they so wish. It’s reported evacuees will initially land in Darwin before being transported to Christmas Island for isolation.
Earlier today, Qantas said flights to mainland China would cease from 9 February but it could bring the date forward if deemed necessary. The airline said the move was due to “entry restrictions” rather than the virus specifically.
Qantas will suspend its two direct services to mainland China from Sydney to Beijing and Sydney to Shanghai from 9 February until 29 March 2020.
“This follows entry restrictions imposed by countries including Singapore and the United States, which impact the movement of crew who work across the Qantas international network,” the statement said.
“These entry restrictions pose significant logistic challenges for rostering crew to operate mainland China services, leading to the need to temporarily suspend these flights.”
Qantas’ flights to Hong Kong, which operate daily from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, will continue.
Despite being part of China, Hong Kong is an autonomous province with a physical border to the mainland. The airline said that as there are currently no restrictions on travel to Hong Kong its flights would continue to run.
Virgin Australia flies to Hong Kong from Sydney and Melbourne, but has no direct flights to mainland China.
“In selecting a date to suspend services Qantas is working to balance high passenger numbers in both directions – including Australian residents wanting to return home from China – with the various travel restrictions being applied.
“The suspension may be brought forward if demand levels or other factors change. The date for flights to resume will also be regularly reviewed based on the circumstances,” it said.
Air New Zealand has also announced it will suspend its daily Auckland to Shanghai service from February 9 until late March due to a drop in bookings and crew logistics.
BAN CHINA FLIGHTS CALL
Qantas is just one of a slew of carriers to connect China and Australia. From Sydney alone, around 10 flights leave each day to destinations including the major cities as well as Changsha and Kunming.
Big carriers Air China, China Southern and China Eastern all serve multiple Australian airports while in recent years smaller players such as Xiamen Air and Hainan Airlines have also entered the market.
Earlier on Saturday, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk called on the federal government to stop arrival flights from China in a bid to halt the spread of the virus.
It comes after the administration of President Donald Trump announced the US was suspending the entry of foreign nationals who had travelled to China in the last 14 days. It is also redirecting flights from China to a handful of airports.
Ms Palaszczuk told reporters in Brisbane on Saturday that she backed “recommendations in relation to no more incoming flights until the virus is contained”.
“I don’t often agree with Donald Trump, but I do agree with the US authorities on this occasion that I think we should take every measure possible to combat this virus,” she added.
Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy has previously said a flight ban wouldn’t stop people from China travelling to Australia.
“Unless you lockdown exit from the country, banning flights, direct flights, doesn’t stop people coming from China,” he said last week.
“They could come from all sorts of other ports and at least we know who is coming from China and we can meet and do very intensive border measures for those flights.”
GOVERNMENT SAYS NO
On Friday, broadcaster Alan Jones demanded Foreign Minister Marise Payne explain why the government hadn’t grounded flights from China in a fiery on-air exchange.
The 2GB radio and Sky News host asked Ms Payne why Australia was still allowing up to 49,000 people from arrive from China each week, including on nine flights to Sydney on Friday alone.
Ms Payne said the government was working “step by step with authorities” who said it was still safe for planes to arrive from China.
“They have repeatedly told us that stopping all flights from China is not recommended at this stage and in fact no other country has stopped all flights from China,” Ms Payne said.
“We review that every single day and we will continue to do that.”
– with AAP.
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