Australia

5,000 people in Tasmania forced to quarantine

April 13, 2020 4:30 pm

The Australian state of Tasmania has closed down two hospitals after a number of infections were found to be linked to them. [Source: BBC]

The Australian state of Tasmania has closed down two hospitals after a number of infections were found to be linked to them.

All 1,200 staff members from the North West Regional Hospital and the North West Private Hospital in Burnie, as well as their household members, now need to go into quarantine for two weeks. Local media reports say that’s about 5,000 people that will have to be quarantined.

The majority of patients will be transferred to a nearby hospital so the hospitals can undergo “deep cleaning”.

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Around 60 cases of the state’s 144 cases have been linked to the hospitals, say local media reports.

“Never before has a premier had to ask a community to do this,” said the state’s premier Peter Gutwein.

“But I would ask that you work with us. This is the best way that we can get on top of this, that we can stop the spread of this insidious disease.

The numbers are relatively small but the trend is upwards, and that is not good for China.

The 108 new confirmed cases is the highest number of daily infections in more than five weeks in the officially reported government numbers.

The main reason, according to the statistics, is a continued stream of Chinese nationals returning home. They account for almost all the confirmed cases. Almost half are concentrated in the northern province of

Heilongjiang, where some Chinese crossing from Russia have brought it with them.

Despite severe restrictions on international travel coming into China, the reality is the government hasn’t been able to completely stop new cases of the virus emerging.

In the province of Hubei, where it all began, the numbers are very small but people are still dying. Two new deaths there have been reported.

That’s despite the fact it was deemed safe enough to open up to the rest of China and the world.

Two of the European countries worst-affected by the pandemic, Italy and France, have both reported a reduction in the daily number of deaths linked to COVID-19

The latest figure from Italy is 431 – the lowest in more than three weeks. Officials say the crisis has peaked.

France has recorded a slight fall in both the number of dead and of patients put onto life support. It said on Sunday there were 315 deaths in hospital in the past 24 hours, compared with 345 the day earlier.

Spain however has seen an increase in daily deaths linked to Covid-19, to just over 600. The government warned there could still be tough times ahead, even as the number of new infections continues to slow.