MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th August, 2020) The Australian authorities have decided to keep the country's borders closed for a few months amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday.
Currently, entry into the country is limited to citizens, permanent residents and their close relatives. All arrivals must spend 14 days in quarantine. Earlier in the day, the prime minister held a cabinet meeting on the COVID-19 response.
"We also agreed that international travel constraints on inbound arrivals to Australia should be continued in their current form. We look forward to, at some point, that that might be able to be altered. But at this point, we are not going to put any further strain on the quarantine arrangements around the country and they will remain in place now for some months," Morrison said afterward, as quoted by his office.
Australia has confirmed a total of 20,272 cases, with a death toll of 266. Most of the cases, 13,867, have been recorded in the Victoria state, which has declared a state of disaster due to a recent spike.
