Coronavirus: China travel ban set be relaxed soon under health advice

New advice to the federal government raises hopes for nearly 100,000 Chinese students stranded outside Australia.

A ban on Chinese students entering Australia could soon be lifted. Picture: AFP

New health advice to the federal government has raised the hopes of nearly 100,000 Chinese students stranded outside of Australia that the coronavirus travel ban will soon be relaxed.

The official expert health advisory group has told the government it can consider easing the travel ban on Chinese students in one week’s time if coronavirus case numbers in China, outside Hubei province, do not show a “material increase”.

“There is a case for government to consider, at that time, a temporary relaxation of the travel restrictions to allow entry to a larger number of tertiary students,” the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee said.

But if students are allowed in they would “need to agree to self-isolation in Australia and universities would need to make arrangements to support student self-isolation”, the expert committee said.

Universities would also “need to provide appropriate advice to students and support students to access health services if symptoms develop”.

The government is considering the advice, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison saying on Thursday that he would look at “things we can do to try to minimise the impact on particular sectors, particularly the education sector”.

The committee said that if the current epidemiological indicators remained as they were, the entry of Chinese students “would not materially increase the current low risk of importation of cases from mainland China (outside of Hubei province)”.

“The flow of students would likely be slow, given the current number of cancelled flights and the alternative pathways into Australia already undertaken in third countries,” the committee said.

The committee is made up of the state and territory chief health officers and is chaired by the Australian chief medical officer Brendan Murphy.

In its statement the committee also revealed that the China travel ban could be relaxed for a small number of other cases including year 11 and 12 school students, as long as they were not from Hubei province.

The medical advice comes as thousands of Chinese students are trying to beat the ban by transiting through third countries including Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Cambodia. If they wait there for a 14 day quarantine period they are allowed to enter Australia.

Some have arrived via third countries in the last few days with many more scheduled to arrive next week, now that the third country option has been proven to work.

The University of Western Sydney is offering $1500 to each of its 300 Chinese students stuck overseas to help defray their expenses if they choose to come to Australia via a third country. The money will be paid to the students if they successfully arrive in Australia after transiting a third country.