PM: Mandatory Quarantine Hotels for Returning Aussies

FROM midnight on Saturday all Australian’s returning home will be taken into quarantine accommodation in the cities where they land, to ensure compliance with the 14 day measures.

The Prime Minister said more than two-thirds of all cases of coronavirus in Australia are from Australian’s returning home and a significant number are from those travellers infecting further people in the community.

Members of the Australian Defence Force will be deployed to assist local states and territories law enforcement, to ensure everybody in the community is complying with self-isolation measures.

The Prime Minister said there were more than 7,000 arrivals into Australia yesterday, but compared to the same time last year it was more than 48,000 in a day, which he said will allow states and territories to manage the new measures of accommodating return travellers in quarantine hotels. 

He further warned, “it won’t be long and it will be very difficult to get back to Australia….it is getting tougher and stricter.”

Brendan Murphy the Chief Medical Officer said the other main area of concern, is the growth of community transmission rates, making social distancing and self-isolation critical.

“We are worried about the growth,” said Professor Murphy.

“We can’t have anyone breaking the rules,” he said.

“We are getting on top of our outbreak…but we have to very closely watch the community transmission,” Brendan Murphy said.

The Prime Minister said the number of people out in Melbourne and Sydney had decreased by 80 percent in the last two weeks, which is “saving lives and saving livelihoods.”