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International Visitors To Australia Must Self-Isolate For 14 Days In Fight Against COVID-19
Australia says all international travelers to the country will have to self-isolate for 14 days and no cruise ships from foreign ports will be allowed to dock.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Sunday the actions are aimed at stopping the spread of COVID-19 in Australia.
"What we've seen in recent weeks," Morrison said, "is more countries having issues with the virus and that means the source of some of those transmissions are coming from more and more countries."
Spain announced Saturday it would severely limit the movements of its nation of 46 million people in an attempt to contain the coronavirus pandemic spreading in Europe.
Madrid said it would employ steps similar to Italy in locking down its country for two weeks. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, in announcing the measures, said, starting immediately, residents would only be allowed to leave their homes to buy food and medicine, to go to work, to find medical care or to help care for the young or elderly.
Spain has more than 6,300 confirmed COVID-19 cases, which represented an increase of more than 1,500 in 24 hours. The death toll has risen to 196. Spain has the fifth-highest number of cases, after China, Italy, Iran and South Korea.
France has also announced new restrictions to contain the virus. Officials have already closed major tourist attractions -- the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre -- but starting Sunday, most other places where people gather -- restaurants, cinemas, non-essential retail -- will be closed as well. Municipal elections Sunday, however, are still taking place. France has recorded about 4,400 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and 91 deaths.
The United States Saturday expanded its travel ban with Europe to include the United Kingdom and Ireland.
In a press briefing Saturday with the White House coronavirus task force, President Donald Trump said he is considering restricting travel within U.S. borders as well, especially from certain areas of concern.
Trump's declaration Friday of a national emergency prompted the U.S. Defense Department to stop all domestic travel for military service members and their families effective Monday through May 11.
Senior officials with the Department of Homeland Security said Saturday that there are no current plans to restrict domestic travel.
U.S. nationals and permanent residents who are returning from countries that are part of the ban will be required to undergo additional screening and questioning to determine if they can return to their communities, the officials said. If not required to seek medical help, they will be sent home and will spend two weeks in self-quarantine. Foreign nationals living in the U.S. who have traveled to countries on the ban, however, will not be allowed to return in the United States. The DHS official said they would have to travel to a third country, not included in the ban, and wait out the two-week period of self-quarantine before traveling to the U.S.
Trump said that he had been tested for the virus and was awaiting results. Hours later, his personal physician, U.S. Navy Commander Sean Conley, released a memo that Trump had tested negative for the virus. Vice President Mike Pence, who heads the task force, said he would consult with the White House physician about whether to take the test.
The White House said it is now conducting temperature checks on anyone in close contact with Trump or Pence. Before the Saturday press briefing, a member of the White House physician's office took the temperature of each journalist in the briefing room, marking a change in practices because of a concern that the president and his staff have been in contact with infected individuals.
Earlier Saturday, the House approved legislation to provide direct relief to Americans suffering physically, financially and emotionally from the coronavirus pandemic, and Trump threw his support behind the congressional aid package. The Senate will consider the bill this week.
The emergency package includes funds to support small- and medium-sized businesses faced with increased costs from sick leave, as well as individuals incurring loss of income from quarantines or reduced economic activity.
Central to the president's emergency measures is the expansion of testing for the coronavirus disease. The United States has been criticized for its slow roll out of coronavirus test kits, and Trump has pledged to accelerate the testing capacity, including by setting up drive-through testing sites.
The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, cautioned that the situation will continue to worsen despite the increased efforts.
"We have not reached our peak. We will see more cases, and more deaths among the more vulnerable," Dr. Fauci said, adding that there is hope and a challenge to "influence the curve" by bringing down the rates of infection.
The United States has just over 3,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and 60 deaths from the disease. New York state, which has instituted a containment zone around a cluster of infections in the town of New Rochelle, Saturday reported its first death from COVID-19.
Fauci stressed the need to practice social distancing in order to lower rates of spread and allow health practitioners to gain control of the situation.
The president has come under repeated criticism for downplaying the risk of infection and the threat posed by the virus in the United States. He struck a more serious tone Friday and Saturday while announcing the new federal measures, including the declaration of national emergency.
During the Saturday press briefing he faced questions from journalists about shaking hands and other habits that go against the advice of medical professionals to practice social distancing.
"It becomes a habit. Frankly I was a non-handshaker, but when you're a politician, it becomes a natural reflex," he responded, adding that he is trying to break the habit.
While experts emphasize the severity of the situation, they are also trying to control the spread of panic.
The U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Jerome Adams, said that almost all people, "98–99%," will recover, but he reinforced the need for individual responsibility in preventing the spread of infection to the most vulnerable, who may face severe symptoms and even death.
Europe has replaced China as the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organization confirmed.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters Friday in Geneva that in Europe "more cases are now being reported every day than were reported in China at the height of its epidemic.''
In Italy the number of coronavirus infections has soared, bringing the total number infected in the country to more than 21,000. The number of coronavirus deaths in Italy, the hardest-hit country outside of China, stood at 1,441.
Denmark and Poland joined other countries Saturday in closing their borders to most travelers, while Russia said it will shut its borders with Norway and Poland on Sunday.
More than 156,000 people have been infected by COVID-19 worldwide, with the most in China, where over 3,000 patients have died and 67,000 people have recovered. While China still accounts for more than 60% of global infections, it reported just 10 new COVID-19 infections Saturday.
The very slight increase in new cases does not mean, however, that the virus is on its way out of the Asian nation. There are still thousands of Chinese who remain infected with the virus.
Iran said Saturday 1,365 new cases were confirmed over a 24-hour period, raising the total to 12,729. Ninety-seven people died over that period, boosting the death toll in Iran, the world's third-hardest hit by COVID-19, to 611.
The Iranian government announced Friday it will employ near-martial law to combat the virus. State television said security forces would fan out across the country, clearing shops, streets and roads of people.
Iranian global health scholar Kamiar Alaei told VOA Persian that he believes the actual number of cases in Iran is 40,000.
Four African countries -- Mauritania, Rwanda, Seychelles and Central African Republic -- confirmed their first coronavirus cases Saturday. Rwanda, Senegal, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco and Kenya immediately announced tougher measures, such as bans on public gatherings, stopping flights and closing schools and universities, to combat COVID-19.
There were more than 60 confirmed cases in Africa as of Friday, according to the WHO.
Ardita Dunellari at the White House, Lisa Schlein in Geneva, Margaret Besheer in New York and VOA Persian's Farhad Pouladi and Arian Risbaf contributed to this report.
March 15, 2020 at 06:09PM
