Reported today on The Guardian For the full article visit:
Australians in China's coronavirus region may not be able to be evacuated
Strict travel restrictions mean an unknown number of Australians may be stranded in the coronavirus hotspot
The Australian government does not know how many of its citizens are caught in the vast quarantine lock-down imposed across China, as it and governments around the world scramble to try to evacuate their nationals.
But it appears increasingly unlikely foreign countries will be allowed to simply extricate their citizens in the face of militarily enforced lockdowns. Indonesia has said it "seems to be impossible", while Australia has said it "needs to abide by the travel restrictions … placed there for precisely the purpose of containing the coronavirus".
A hotline for family members of Australian citizens has received 385 calls, but the foreign minister, Marise Payne, has said it was "unwise to speculate" on how many citizens this represented or how quickly they could be brought out.
Payne would not confirm reports there were 100 children among the Australians trapped inside Hubei province, aged from six months to 16.
Australia does not have a consulate in the city at the centre of the outbreak, Wuhan. There are only a handful of trade officials, and diplomats from outside have not been allowed in to coordinate evacuation efforts.
Domestically, school children in NSW who have been in contact with a confirmed case of coronavirus – anywhere in the world – have been told not to attend school for two weeks.
Globally, the outbreak of coronavirus 2019-nCoV has now claimed 80 lives, all of those in China, and the vast majority in Hubei province, the epicentre of the pandemic. There are a further 2,700 people infected across China, with 461 of those in cri
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