Australia extends pandemic border closure by three months
Agence France-Presse
Posted at Mar 03 2021 08:35 AM
Photo by Joey Csunyo on Unsplash
SYDNEY - Australia will extend its year-long international border closure by at least three months to mid-June, continuing the country's self-imposed isolation to keep the coronavirus at bay.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said health officials had advised the government "the Covid-19 situation overseas continues to pose an unacceptable public health risk to Australia, including the emergence of more highly transmissible variants".
As a result, strict border controls will continue until June 17, he said Tuesday.
Caps were also imposed on the number of Australians permitted to return each week, leaving tens of thousands stranded overseas.
Travelers allowed into the country must spend thousands of dollars to complete 14 days in hotel quarantine on arrival.
Australia has been relatively successful in containing the spread of Covid-19, with just under 29,000 cases recorded in a population of 25 million and few virus restrictions now in place.
Gazan buried as only known victim of Iran’s strikes on Zionist entity --- Agencies
JERICHO, West Bank: A 38-year-old Gazan, the only known fatality in Iran’s missile attack against the Zionist entity, was buried on Wednesday. Sameh Khadr Hassan Al-Asali had been staying in a Palestinian security forces compound in the occupied West Bank when he was killed by falling missile debris during Tuesday’s attack, which the entity said was largely thwarted by its air defense systems. Security forces personnel carried the body draped in the red, green, white and black Palestinian flag. The crowd of about 200 mourners was made up of fellow Gazans staying in Jericho and local people. A large section of the rocket lay on the ground where it fell outside the compound. Around 700 workers from Gaza have been staying in Jericho, in the Jordan Valley, since the start of the war in Gaza almost a year ago. Unlike citizens of the Zionist entity, who went into bomb shelters after warning sirens sounded across the country, many Palestinians in the West Bank went out to watch the missiles ...
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