Australia and New Zealand shut down foreign arrivals

Leaders in Australia and New Zealand pulled the trigger on an already mortally-wounded international tourism industry on Thursday and banned foreign arrivals. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that non-citizens and residents are now banned from entering Australia after 9 pm Australian Eastern Daylight Time Friday. The move was made in coordination with a similar ban by the New Zealand government that effectively stops all people except New Zealanders from boarding a plane to the Land of the Long White Cloud after 11:59 pm Thursday. READ: Qantas and Jetstar suspend international flights, slash workforce. Citizens and residents returning home to both countries will still be expected to enter isolation for 14 days. Morrison said the move was a crucial measure to try and stem the spread of COVID-19 and had been made after further consultation with the national security committee. He said overseas tourism was already down to about a third of normal levels and the overwhelming COVID-19 cases in Australia had been imported. “We have about 80 percent of the cases ... in Australia that are either the result of someone who has contracted the virus overseas or someone who has had direct contact with someone who has returned from overseas,” he told reporters in Canberra. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden said the spread of the COVID-19 in other parts of the world had made it increasingly clear New Zealand needed to take even stronger border measures. “Today’s decision stops any tourist, or temporary visa holder such as students or temporary workers, from coming to and entering into New Zealand,'' she said. “The rapidly worsening global health situation means that the threat to people’s health in New Zealand has risen, even in the five days since we took the world-leading step of requiring 14 days of self-isolation for anyone entering the country. “All of the cases of COVID-19 identified in New Zealand relate to people traveling to New Zealand and bringing the virus with them – therefore we need to further restrict the risk of people bringing the virus into New Zealand." Adern said a small number of exemptions could be sought for humanitarian reasons, essential health workers and the citizens of Somoa and Tonga who needed to travel to New Zealand for essential reasons. The bans come as airlines in both countries have cut most or all of their international flying and many overseas carriers have suspended or reduced services. Qantas and Jetstar announced Thursday that they were suspending international flights from late March until at least the end of May and standing down two-thirds of the group's 30,000 employees in response to government restrictions. The southern Australian state of Tasmania also announced it was imposing 14-day self-isolation requirements on most visitors, prompting Qantas to reduce its schedule to the island. .