Australia orders all arrivals to self-isolate for 14 days

Australia orders all arrivals to self-isolate for 14 days

Australia’s prime minister has ordered a 14-day self-isolation for anyone arriving in the country to try to halt the spread of the coronavirus.

The prime minister announced the measures following a cabinet meeting on the coronavirus crisis.

“This is very important, what we’ve seen in recent weeks 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,” he said at the briefing in Sydney.

“We know that the virus cannot be absolutely stopped – no-one can do that – but we can slow the spread.

“And we anticipate that will be our task over the next six months.”

He urged people to practise more “social distancing”, including not shaking hands.

Mr Morrison said that despite all the changes he hoped Australians would not lose their “sense of Australianness”.

Appearing alongside him, Australia’s chief medical officer Brendan Murphy admitted that these were “difficult times” for the country.

He called on Australians to be sensible when buying necessities, warning against panic buying.

Source: BBC