Via the ABC:
The Federal Government has extended its coronavirus travel ban for another week until Saturday February 29.
The Government first implemented strict new border-control measures in an effort to halt what it dubbed an “escalating threat” of the coronavirus.
The ban means foreign nationals who have been in mainland China are not allowed into Australia for 14 days from the time they left China.
Australian citizens and permanent residents are able to enter Australia but need to isolate themselves for a fortnight.
The Government first introduced a 14-day travel ban for travellers from mainland China at the start of the month.
Cabinet’s national security committee decided to extend the ban after a recommendation from state and federal health officials.
“The [Australian Health Protection Principal Committee] has advised that there are signs the spread of the coronavirus in Chinese provinces outside Hubei province is slowing,” the statement reads.
“We will need to watch closely whether this positive trend continues as people return to work after the holidays.
“Unfortunately, the number of infections and deaths in Hubei province itself continues to grow.”
Nor can Chinese data be trusted, I’m afraid.
Which is why they need some good old fashioned Scotty from Marketing rebranding, via the AFR:
A small cohort of Chinese students could soon be allowed into Australia on a test basis, as the Morrison government seeks to protect the domestic population from the coronavirus while trying to limit the damage to the education sector.
… the National Security Committee of Cabinet, acting on medical advice, agreed on Thursday to extend the ban for at least another week…But it also discussed allowing in a small number of students from China who are not from Hubei province, which is the epicentre of the outbreak.
This was alluded to in a statement released by Prime Minister Scott Morrison after Thursday’s meeting.
…Sources said the Chinese government, which is increasingly unhappy at the travel ban, has been lobbying for the option of allowing in a small number of students.
I might have thought that a “small group” of students – say 1k – violates strict quarantine principle but the catchy jingle has me growing in enthusiasm for it.
The CCP needs to rebrand the Chinese outbreak as cured even when it isn’t and Scotty from Marketing is available to do some real time “market testing” on live Australians so let’s jump to it.
Look at those happy, bright colours, dancing, dancing, dancing! As opening up too early does wonders for virus cases, via Global Times:
A central Beijing hospital reported 36 novel coronavirus cases as of Thursday, a sharp increase from nine cases from two weeks earlier, leading many to fear a potential explosion of infection numbers in the capital.
Among the infected at Fuxing Hospital in Xicheng district were eight medical workers, nine cleaning staff and 19 patients along with their families, the Beijing government’s leading group for COVID-19 prevention and control work said at a press conference on Thursday.
“Considering 36 confirmed cases were found in Fuxing Hospital, it is more about one case of multiple infections rather than an epidemic of the whole area,” Wang Guangfa, director of the department of respiratory and critical care medicine at Peking University First Hospital, told the Global Times on Thursday.
Another major hospital, Peking University People’s Hospital, on Thursday for the first time reported confirmed cases of infection. Three patients at the hospital were confirmed to have the novel coronavirus on February 17 and were sent to designated medical institutions for treatment, authorities at the press conference said.
A total of 164 people including medical staff at Peo-ple’s Hospital who have had close contact with the patients have been put under close medical observation. The hospital also conducted coronavirus tests on 251 personnel and nine environments, and the results were all negative. The hospital has sterilized places that the patients may have touched, and hemodialysis rooms were sterilized when each shift was completed.
Look away, look away, look away. Ting, ting, te-ting. See not that definition changes that have driven infection rates lower in China:
De, de, de, de. Nor that outbreaks in Korea, Japan, Iran, Vietnam and pretty much every other Chinese economic satellite are worsening:
Be, bop, be do, bop. Virus: where the bloody hell are you?
