Australia is to use a little-known biosecurity law to restrict the movements of people suspected of having been infected with COVID-19, Australian Attorney General Christian Porter said yesterday.
Australia on Monday confirmed the first community transmission of the coronavirus after a doctor contracted it.
State health officials have said that the doctor had not traveled overseas in months and had not treated any of the other confirmed cases.
Photo: Adam Spence via Reuters
Amid fears of a widespread outbreak, Porter said that the government would expand the use of a rarely used law that would either designate some places as out of bounds or place the patient in home detention.
“Under the Biosecurity Act, you could have the prevention of movement from persons in and out of particular places,” Porter told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
“You might have a major sporting event where people would be in very, very close proximity to each other and ... it might be determined that the risk of transmission at a venue like that was too high,” he added.
The law, enacted in 2015, has rarely been used outside of Australia’s agricultural sector.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison last week said that a pandemic was likely, and that Australia has moved to try and prevent the virus from reaching its shores.
Since Feb. 1, Australia has stopped any foreigner from entering directly from China, where the virus originated.
China is Australia’s largest trading partner and the move has prevented thousands of students and tourists from entering Australia.
Some Chinese students have traveled to a third country for two weeks, the presumed incubation period for the coronavirus, which satisfies Australia’s quarantine restrictions.
However, authorities yesterday confirmed that one such student, a 20-year old Chinese man, has been diagnosed with the coronavirus. The unidentified man spent two weeks in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, before traveling to Australia.
Australia now has 38 cases of coronavirus after New South Wales confirmed four more.
Australia has had one death, a 78-year-old man who was a former passenger on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which was quarantined off Japan.
Keen to temper fears, Morrison urged Australians to remain calm as some rushed to shops to stock up on supplies, including canned foods and toilet paper, in case of a pandemic or restrictions on movement.
Morrison said that he has spoken with Australia’s two largest retailers, Coles and Woolworths.
“They would send the same message I am sending you today. It is important that people just go about their business and their normal processes in a calm manner,” Morrison told reporters in Canberra.
FRAUD ALLEGED: The leader of an opposition alliance made allegations of electoral irregularities and called for a protest in Tirana as European leaders are to meet Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party scored a large victory in parliamentary elections, securing him his fourth term, official results showed late on Tuesday. The Socialist Party won 52.1 percent of the vote on Sunday compared with 34.2 percent for an alliance of opposition parties led by his main rival Sali Berisha, according to results released by the Albanian Central Election Commission. Diaspora votes have yet to be counted, but according to initial results, Rama was also leading there. According to projections, the Socialist Party could have more lawmakers than in 2021 elections. At the time, it won 74 seats in the
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
CANCER: Jose Mujica earned the moniker ‘world’s poorest president’ for giving away much of his salary and living a simple life on his farm, with his wife and dog Tributes poured in on Tuesday from across Latin America following the death of former Uruguayan president Jose “Pepe” Mujica, an ex-guerrilla fighter revered by the left for his humility and progressive politics. He was 89. Mujica, who spent a dozen years behind bars for revolutionary activity, lost his battle against cancer after announcing in January that the disease had spread and he would stop treatment. “With deep sorrow, we announce the passing of our comrade Pepe Mujica. President, activist, guide and leader. We will miss you greatly, old friend,” Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi wrote on X. “Pepe, eternal,” a cyclist shouted out minutes later,
RSS