A woman wearing mask walks in a shopping mall in Sydney, Australia, on March 2, 2020. Australia's first person-to-person transmissions of COVID-19 were confirmed in the State of New South Wales (NSW) on Monday, with two people contracting the disease while on Australian soil. (Xinhua/Bai Xuefei)
Travellers from Iran to Australia have been told to self-isolate in their homes due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Greg Hunt, the minister for health, announced on Wednesday that the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee is urging anyone who has returned to Australia from Iran since Feb. 19, to self-isolate at home and closely monitor for symptoms of the virus until 14 days after they left Iran.
"It doesn't matter whether you're an Australian citizen, a permanent resident, or a visitor from Iran, the message is very clear - you are now required to self-isolate," Hunt told Sky News Australia.
"In any one month there are approximately 900 arrivals from Iran and so Border Force will be gathering those figures, assisting with the tracing and the contact.
"At the same time we are making contact a Farsi language media so to assist with those that have come from Iran.
"And again, that's an additional measure to those that were announced on Saturday simply because it's absolutely clear that the caseload in Iran is very significant and eight of the cases that have been diagnosed in Australia have had some contact - either travel directly from or been associated with people who've travelled directly from Iran."
Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday announced that he has asked for a review of travel restrictions.
"I've also today asked that issues around travel and border controls also be reassessed again in relation to higher risk groups from nations that obviously includes looking at the issues in the Republic of Korea and in Italy," he said.
