Government closes borders to travellers who have been to China

From Morning Report, 7:10 am on 3 February 2020

All foreign citizens who've travelled from or through China will be barred from entering the country from today. There are more than 14,500 confirmed cases of Novel Coronovirus, with many of of them are outside Wuhan.

A little over 300 people have died and 348 have recovered.

There are now ten countries, including New Zealand, who have denied entry to all foreign visitors who had recently been to China.

The other countries are the US and Australia, Russia, Japan, Pakistan, Iraq, Italy, Indonesia and Singapore.

New Zealand joins the US, Australia, Singapore, Japan and Vietnam in making the move in a bid to stop the spread of the deadly Wuhan Coronavirus.

Numerous countries have also suspended flights from China.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has raised its travel advice to New Zealanders for all of mainland China to "Do not travel", the highest level.

The Government also announced yesterday the New Zealanders it is planning to evacuate from Wuhan will be taken to a military base at Whangaparaoa where they will spend 14 days in isolation.

The Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says there's still no departure time for the Air New Zealand-chartered evacuation flight but it's likely to be with days.

Health Minister David Clark speaks to Corin Dann.