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Australia To Consider Extending Coronavirus Travel Ban To The Whole Of Europe

Australia To Consider Extending Coronavirus Travel Ban To The Whole Of Europe

The Morrison government is seeking information on whether it should follow in America's footsteps

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

The Australian government has asked health officials for advice on whether it should extend its travel ban to the whole of Europe.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison this week put Italy on the coronavirus-related travel ban list - along with China, Iran and South Korea - after the European country had a serious outbreak of the disease.

But Europe's freedom of movement, which allows some people to cross borders without having their passports stamped, has been listed as a concern.

There are worries that people could simply nip to a neighbouring country and fly to Australia without authorities being aware they had visited Italy.

PA

Health Minister Greg Hunt said: "[The committee] has decided to reaffirm and continue following the medical advice all existing country travel bans.

"The Prime Minister has also referred the question of all travel from Europe from the national security committee to the medical experts at the Australian Health Protection Principles Committee.

"We will continue to follow the medical advice."

The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee will eventually determine whether to formally recommend for the European travel ban to be introduced.

Germany and France have so far recorded more than 2,000 cases of Covid-19 each.

Australians visiting Italy will have to self-isolate for two weeks once they return home, however anyone else who has visited the country will not be permitted to come until after a fortnight.

PA

Mr Morrison told reporters this week: "Italy itself has effectively put itself into lockdown with travel now, and this largely closes that loop.

"We already had the enhanced screening measures that are in place.

"This, of course, will mean that any Australians, residents or others, who are obviously exempt from those travel bans, would be subject to the same isolation period that applies to the other countries for which there are travel bans."

The questions about travelling from the rest of Europe were sparked after US President Donald Trump announced a travel ban on 26 countries on the continent.

PA

The ruling will come into effect tomorrow and will last for 30 days, meaning no one from Europe will be able to fly to the US.

Mr Trump used a rare televised event to tell the country: "Taking early intense action, we have seen dramatically fewer cases of the virus in the United States than are now present in Europe.

"The European Union failed to take the same precautions and restrict travel from China and other hot spots.

"As a result, a large number of new clusters in the United States were seeded by travellers from Europe."

The United Kingdom and Ireland are exempt from the ruling.

There have been more than 1,300 cases of Covid-19 in America and a little more than 125,000 cases globally. More than half of those people have since recovered, however 4,630 have died.

Featured Image Credit: Pixabay

Topics: News, coronavirus, Australia