The Coalition banned anyone arriving from China, except Australian citizens, permanent residents and their direct family from entry to Australia as it seeks to stop the spread of the potentially deadly coronavirus. Sky News understands the prime minister is expected to extend the travel ban by 14 days. The number of coronavirus deaths in China has increased sharply over the past 24 hours, with 1,359 deaths and at least 48,000 people infected.
Mr Harcourt told Sky News he believed the “view of the Australian government and border authorities is the fear of coronavirus is almost more important than coronavirus itself”. He said “you don’t want a mass panic to spook financial markets” and “the idea is that you take a lot of short term pain to ensure that you don’t do any long-term damage to the Australian economy and indeed globally”.
Fantastic decision!
😷😷😷😷😷