Australia enforces social-distancing rules to curb spread

Billions of people all over the world are facing various degrees of lockdown in their areas or countries. As advice to observe social distancing often falls on deaf ears, many governments have stepped up measures to ensure social contact is minimised. In Malaysia, for instance, over 450 people have been arrested for flouting the country’s Movement Control Order.

A man running past the closed-off Bronte Beach in Sydney last Wednesday. While there is no national order to stay home, the Australian authorities have urged people to cancel house parties and other social gatherings. PHOTO: EPA-EFE
A man running past the closed-off Bronte Beach in Sydney last Wednesday. While there is no national order to stay home, the Australian authorities have urged people to cancel house parties and other social gatherings. PHOTO: EPA-EFE

MELBOURNE • Australia stepped up enforcement of social-distancing rules yesterday to contain community transmission of the coronavirus - implementing fines, closing beaches and threatening stricter measures if people defy pleas to stay at home.

The death toll rose to 14 yesterday, after an elderly woman died in an aged care facility in New South Wales (NSW) state where several residents and employees have tested positive, according to NSW health officials.

The country's total number of confirmed cases jumped by 469 to 3,635 yesterday, the federal health ministry said, from fewer than 100 at the start of the month. The case numbers have leapt by about 30 per cent since Thursday, with most infections in NSW and Victoria states.

As of midnight yesterday, all returning citizens from abroad will be put into compulsory quarantine in hotels for two weeks at the government's expense. Military personnel will help ensure travellers comply with the new rules.

"There are so many parts of the world where this (virus) is running rampant and I think every returned traveller is a significant risk," Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said in a televised briefing.

Two-thirds of the cases in Australia have been traced to contact with people returning from overseas, although community transmission has been growing.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said harsher enforcement of social distancing could be necessary if community transmission began to rise "at a rate that we are not comfortable with".

Australia's state and federal governments have sent some mixed messages about social distancing and other containment measures, leading to widespread confusion.

While there is no national order to stay home, entertainment and other mass gathering venues have been shut and the authorities have urged people to cancel house parties and other social gatherings.

Victoria's police closed beaches yesterday, after hundreds of people flocked to the waterside a day earlier in a repeat of scenes the previous weekend at Sydney's Bondi beach.

Sydney police said they had gone to a backpacker hostel at Bondi on Friday night to prevent a "free sausage sizzle" that had been advertised at the venue, amid concerns that young people in particular are not taking social distancing seriously.

Victoria and South Australia states implemented on-the-spot fines for people and businesses breaking social distancing rules, following similar measures introduced by NSW.

While beaches and some parks were closed in various parts of the country, department stores were allowed to remain open under rules requiring shoppers to stay 1.5m apart.

That has not helped the major retailers much, with Myer Holdings shutting all its stores for four weeks from today amid a slump in consumer spending.

In Queensland state yesterday, more than one million people were required to visit polling stations to vote in council elections, or face a A$133 (S$114) fine. Long queues were reported outside some booths due to measures limiting the number of people allowed inside. Queuing voters were told to stand 1.5m apart and asked to bring their own pens.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Sunday Times on March 29, 2020, with the headline Australia enforces social-distancing rules to curb spread. Subscribe