Overseas arrivals required to isolate for 14 days, cruise ships from foreign ports banned for 30 days, but schools will remain open

This article is more than 6 months old

This article is more than 6 months old

People in some states could face hefty fines if they do not comply with new government restrictions aimed at containing the spread of coronavirus, with the prime minister announcing strict new requirements for all people arriving in Australia to self-isolate for 14 days.

Cruise ship arrivals will also be banned for at least 30 days, Scott Morrison announced on Sunday, amid escalating efforts to contain the virus.

The strict measures came as two more deaths in Australia from coronavirus were confirmed on Sunday evening.

A 77-year-old woman from Queensland died in New South Wales on Friday shortly after arriving in Sydney by plane, NSW Health said, while a 90-year old woman – a resident of Dorothy Henderson Lodge – died on Saturday.

NSW recorded 22 new cases of Covid-19, taking the total number of cases in the state to 134 and Victoria recorded eight new cases taking its total to 57.

Queensland had its highest increase in a 24-hour period with 15 new cases, bringing the total number for the state to 61.

Morrison told reporters in Sydney that the first meeting of the national cabinet on Sunday had agreed to legislate offences for people who breach the self-isolation rule and escalated advice to others to undertake social distancing, including refusing handshakes and keeping a distance of 1.5 metres away from people.

State and territory leaders say there are already existing laws through which they will enforce the new rules but they were also assessing on Sunday whether any changes would need to be made.

Penalties in some states include fines of thousands of dollars.

Quick guide Coronavirus: self-isolation advice for Australians Show Hide Who needs to isolate? The Australian government announced new travel restrictions to try to slow the spread of coronavirus on 15 March. From midnight, all returning Australians and overseas visitors are required to isolate themselves for 14 days after arriving in the country. People who have been in close contact with somebody diagnosed coronavirus are already required to self-isolate. What does self-isolation mean? Self-isolation starts when you arrive in Australia, with the federal department of health recommending you use personal transport, such as a car, to travel home or to your hotel from the airport, to minimise exposure to others. “If you need to use public transport (e.g. taxis, ride-hail services, trains, buses and trams), follow the precautions outlined in the public transport guide. “During the 14 days of isolation, you must stay at home or in your hotel and don’t go to public places including work, school, childcare, university or public gatherings. Only people who usually live with you should be in the home. Do not see visitors.” “Ask others who are not in isolation to get food and necessities for you. If you must leave home, such as to seek medical care, wear a surgical mask. If you don’t have a mask, take care to not cough or sneeze on others.” “If you live in a private house, it is safe for you to go into your garden or courtyard. If you live in an apartment or are staying in a hotel, it is also safe for you to go into the garden but you should wear a surgical mask to minimise risk to others and move quickly through any common areas.” What if I feel sick? The health department recommends monitoring yourself for symptoms including “fever, cough or shortness of breath. Other early symptoms include chills, body aches, sore throat, runny nose and muscle pain.” “If you develop symptoms (fever, a cough, sore throat, tiredness or shortness of breath) within 14 days of returning to Australia or within 14 days of last contact of a confirmed case, you should arrange to see your doctor for urgent assessment. You should telephone the health clinic or hospital before you arrive and tell them your travel history or that you may have been in contact with a potential case of coronavirus.” Limiting the spread at home The health department recommends practising good hand and sneeze/cough hygiene as the best defence against most viruses. It also advises regular cleaning of household surfaces. “To minimise the spread of any germs you should regularly wash surfaces that are frequently touched such as door handles, light switches, kitchen and bathroom areas. Clean with household detergent or disinfectant. Source: Australian Department of Health

The suite of new measures comes after criticism the government has failed to give clear messages about social distancing. The chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, advised as late as Sunday morning that handshakes between people who have not returned from overseas were still advisable.

On Friday the Council of Australia Governments decided to advise against “static, non-essential” mass public gatherings of 500 people or more, to apply from Monday.

The advice has been upgraded to a ban although Morrison reiterated on Sunday that this would not trigger “widescale” closure of schools, shops, airports and workplaces.

“We will impose a universal compulsory self-isolation requirement on all international arrivals to Australia effective from midnight tonight,” Morrison said.

“All people coming to Australia will be required, will be required, I stress, to self-isolate for 14 days.

“Further, the Australian government will ban cruise ships from foreign ports from arriving at Australian ports after an initial 30 days and that will go forward on a rolling basis.”

Coronavirus latest updates: all arrivals in Australia must self-isolate for 14 days, says PM Read more

Morrison said that – until now – self-isolation had been a “voluntary arrangement” with “no potential sanction against a person for not following that requirement”.

“That will change,” he said, although penalties would be “a matter for the states and territories”.

“If your mate has been to Bali and they come back and they turn up at work and they are sitting next to you, they will be committing an offence.”

The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said on Sunday afternoon that the state’s Public Health Act had provisions that would enable the government to enforce the self-isolation requirements. But she said the health minister, Brad Hazzard, was examining the legislation in case any changes needed to be made.

Berejiklian said there had already been one case before Sunday’s announcement in which someone had not self-isolated and police had become involved.

But she said it would be difficult to monitor “every situation” and the government would be relying on “public goodwill” to ensure the rules were followed and the government would “prefer people help us by putting themselves in self-isolation”.

“If you’re in a workplace and you know someone is coming to work who has recently been overseas, let us know,” Berejiklian said.

The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, said public health laws passed in February would be used to enforce the self-isolation rules and people caught not complying could be fined $13,000.

“To date, everyone has done the right thing, we thank them for that,” she said.

The Western Australian premier, Mark McGowan, said there would be penalties, included “severe fines”, for people who breached the self-isolation rules.

By contrast, Morrison played down the prospect of enforcement of social distancing.

“The states and territories … are not going to create event police or social distancing police or things of that nature.”

Morrison said the government’s national information campaign “is running and it will be available to all Australians” but claimed that social distancing was “pretty straightforward”.

He explained maintaining a distance of 1.5 metres would mean “ensuring that you refrain from that sort of physical contact, whether it might be a handshake or something a bit more intimate, unless they’re close family and friends”. “It’s all commonsense.”

For the first time, Morrison presented various scenarios for the speed of the spread of the coronavirus, using them as encouragement to slow the spread to help free up hospital beds for those who need them.

“If we continue to manage this but on how the virus impact on Australia, we will be able to ensure that we can continue to provide the services and support, particularly to the most vulnerable Australians most at risk from the coronavirus,” he said.

Morrison foreshadowed that there “will be further intrusions, further restrictions on people’s movement and their behaviour” in future in response to changes in medical advice.

The first of these will be new protocols for visiting aged care facilities, he said, with further work to be done to protect remote communities in South Australia, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland.

The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, has warned that school closures are regarded as inevitable, prompting many schools and universities to prepare for shutdowns.

But Morrison said there were “very good reasons” against moving to “broadscale closures of schools” at this point.

Although it may seem counterintuitive, schools should stay open at this time because taking children out may expose others to risk and would “put at great risk the availability of critical workers such as nurses, doctors and others who are essential in the community”, he said. “The states and territories are not moving in that direction.”

The issue will be revisited at meetings of the national cabinet on Tuesday and Friday, although individual schools in Victoria and NSW have been allowed to close “based on the cases presented there in the circumstances that exist in those communities”, he said.

Australian schools stay open amid coronavirus but NSW brings in social distancing Read more

Earlier on Sunday Murphy and the health minister, Greg Hunt, confirmed that as advice changes, measures might escalate to include general lockdowns.

“It – it is potential that could be the case,” Murphy told ABC’s Insiders. “But that may be focal. One of the things we know about outbreaks of infections is that they can affect one part of a country, not another.”

Asked if Sydney could be locked down and not the rest of the country, Murphy continued: “Potentially you could. The Koreans did that for two provinces, very successfully locked them down. Everything is up for consideration.”

Labor has criticised the government for the slow pace of rolling out a national information campaign, and on Sunday the shadow infrastructure minister, Catherine King, called for further support for the aviation sector, which missed out on funding in the $1bn regional and community fund.

“While these measures are necessary for public health, the federal government must urgently address the significant consequences for our aviation sector,” she said.

“With conditions changing rapidly and no end in sight, the federal government must urgently provide all necessary support to ensure Australia has a vibrant aviation sector once the coronavirus outbreak has passed.”