Coronavirus: Beijing urges Australia to ease travel ban on China travellers
- Canberra’s move is inconsistent with the recommendations of the World Health Organisation, the Chinese ambassador said
- Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said officials would be guided by advice from medical experts
“We have expressed our strong wish and hope that the Australian government in their review will take a balanced approach and remove those harsh restrictions. At the very least they should relax them,” Cheng told Sky News Australia. “It is inconsistent with the recommendations of the World Health Organisation.”
China slams Australia’s ‘extreme measures’ over coronavirus fears
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said Canberra would be guided by advice from medical experts, despite growing pressure on the Australian economy.
China is Australia’s largest trading partner, sending more than 1 million tourists and students there each year.
Australia’s top central banker this month said the epidemic could shave 0.2 percentage points off Australia’s economic growth in the first quarter of this year.
Meanwhile, Morrison said more than 200 Australians quarantined at an immigration detention centre in the Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island for two weeks would depart on Monday.
“Having to go into a quarantine period for 14 days is an inconvenience. But they understood why. They took that in good faith and I’m sure they’re looking forward to coming home,” Morrison told reporters in Melbourne.
Stranded Chinese students eye third country route to get back to Australia
Morrison said the detention centre would not be ready to house anyone repatriated from the Diamond Princess cruise liner in Japan.
Plans were ongoing to evacuate more than 200 of its citizens on board the ship, which has been under quarantine since arriving in Yokohama on February 3, after a man who disembarked in Hong Kong before it travelled to Japan was diagnosed with the virus.
Morrison said the passengers would depart on Wednesday and would be taken to Australia’s tropical north, where they will be required to be quarantined for another 14 days.
“For those more than 200 Australians who will be returning to Australia, we are going to have to require a further 14-day quarantine period to be put in place on their return to Darwin,” Morrison told reporters in Melbourne.
Coronavirus: how Diamond Princess became a ‘super spreading’ site
Morrison also said space on the Qantas Airways plane will be provided for an unspecified number of New Zealand citizens on the cruise ship.
Those passengers will be transferred to New Zealand when they arrive in Darwin, Morrison said.