The New York Times

Stranded Overseas, Thousands Beg

Australia to Let Them Come Home
Limits on the number of Australians who can return have spurred a growing uproar over
the country’s hard-line approach on the coronavirus.

By Livia Albeck-Ripka
 Sept. 25, 2020

DARWIN, Australia — Alison Richards, a 38-year-old graphic designer, had been living
in Britain for five years when she decided to move home to Australia. Then she got sick
with Covid-19 and lost her job.

“It was an awful experience,” said Ms. Richards, who spent six weeks without leaving
her apartment, except for the night she became so ill she called an ambulance. “I
thought, I’ll just pull myself through this and get home.”

She’s still waiting.

Ms. Richards is among tens of thousands of Australians stranded abroad because of

government coronavirus restrictions that cap the number of people allowed on flights
into the country. In mid-June, Ms. Richards booked a ticket to Sydney, but she has been
bumped twice from her flight as a result of the caps.

Australia is one of the few places in the world that is barring citizens from leaving their
own country and limiting the number of those who can return. The tough regulations
have raised legal concerns about the right to freedom of movement, and have been
especially painful for the large numbers of Australians who turn to travel as a balm
against the tyranny of distance from the rest of the world.

“We wanted to take our kids out of the Australian bubble,” Daniel Tusia, 40, said of his
family’s decision to travel internationally for a year. Mr. Tusia ended up spending
$14,000 on business-class tickets to get his wife and their two children, one of whom
has special needs, back to Australia after weeks of trying to get home.

“It never entered our mind before this point that Australia would actually physically and
legally obstruct you from entering,” he said.

Scott Morrison, Australia’s prime minister, has framed the country’s hard-line approach
as crucial to avoiding the kind of rampant spread of the virus experienced in countries
that have travel restrictions that are looser or nonexistent, as in the United States.
“As an island continent, control of our borders has been a means by which we have kept
Australians safe,” he wrote in a letter in August sent to those requesting consular
assistance to return. He acknowledged that the measures were “frustrating,” but said
they were necessary.

But as many of those stranded abroad have become more publicly vocal about their
plight, some opposition politicians have expressed more empathy. “These are people
who have the right to come back to their country, because they are Australians,” Kristina
Keneally, the Labor Party’s top official for home affairs, told Parliament in September.

Last week, under growing pressure, Mr. Morrison said the caps on passengers entering
the country would be raised to 6,000 per week from 4,000. Those numbers, though,
depend on cooperation from the states and their capacity to quarantine arrivals, and
travel industry experts said they still fell far short of demand.

They encouraged Mr. Morrison to pursue alternatives like allowing people traveling
from countries with low infection rates to self-isolate, instead of mandating quarantine
in government-designated facilities. Similar programs have been successful in Hong
Kong, Singapore and Qatar.

While the authorities estimate that there are more than 35,000 citizens who want to
return home, the airline industry says that based on booking statistics, as well as figures
from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the number is most likely closer to 100,000.

In the first week of September, more than 140 international flights with about 30,000
seats arrived in Australia, but only about 4,000 were filled. Often, business- and first-
class seats are prioritized, meaning that only some can afford to come home.

Mohammad Khan, who has been stuck in Pakistan with his wife since March, said he
was forced to buy business-class tickets after four of his economy tickets were canceled.

The couple could not afford the flights, but needed to return to Australia by December to
ensure that Mr. Khan’s wife did not violate her visa requirements. So they sold their car
in Australia. “We are in a miserable condition here, running out of money and time,” he
said by email.

Emily Costello, 27, who began a job teaching English in South Korea last September,
said there are just two flights to Australia before her visa expires, and they are both
booked up.

She said she could not afford to return in March, when the pandemic began to escalate
and Australia urged its citizens to come home. She has since finished her contract and
has been couch surfing with a colleague while petitioning the Australian government for
answers.
 “I’m not sleeping, I’m vomiting a lot because of the stress, my hands have started
shaking,” said Ms. Costello, who suffers from depression and anxiety. “It shouldn’t be a
lottery.” (to be continued)

Health

Coronavirus symptoms: how to tell if you

have a common cold, flu or Covid
Martin Belam

Mon, 28 September 2020.

With winter approaching, the UK is entering the traditional seasons for colds and
flu, with the additional complication this year that symptoms of those two
illnesses can be broadly similar to those experienced by people who have caught
the coronavirus and may be at risk of spreading it .
The NHS in England has produced a guide to differentiate between the three
types of illnesses, which health experts hope will make it clearer to people
whether they have an illness they would have most likely brushed aside last
year, but which this year might lead them to think they need to self-isolate or
seek to have a coronavirus test.

Coronavirus or Covid-19
The most common symptoms of coronavirus or Covid-19 are a fever – a
temperature of 37.8C (100F) – a new persistent cough (usually dry), and a loss
of their sense of taste and/or smell. Patients may also sometimes suffer from
fatigue, aches and pains, sore throat, headaches and shortness of breath.
Diarrhoea and a runny or stuffy nose are rare. The NHS says symptoms can
range from mild to severe.

Colds
The most common symptoms of a cold are sneezing, aches and pains, a runny
or stuffy nose and sore throat. A mild cough can be experienced. There is
sometimes fatigue, and it is rare to experience a fever or headaches. Colds do
not cause diarrhoea. The NHS states that with a cold there is usually a gradual
onset of symptoms.
Flu
Flu most commonly consists of a fever, fatigue, a dry cough, aches and pains
and headaches. Patients will sometimes experience a runny or stuffy nose or a
sore throat. Diarrhoea can sometimes occur in children. There is no sneezing or
shortness of breath with flu, and the NHS notes there is usually a rapid onset of
symptoms.
• This article was amended on 19 September 2020 to include a loss of taste
and/or smell as a common symptom of people with coronavirus.

Coronavirus Delays Rio de Janeiro’s

Annual Carnival Parade
By VOA News
September 25, 2020.

Rio de Janeiro is postponing February's annual Carnival parade for the first
time in a century because of Brazil’s ongoing struggle to contain the
coronavirus.

Rio’s League of Samba Schools (LIESA) announced Thursday night that the
spread of the coronavirus has made it impossible to safely hold parades and
events, which are the financial lifeblood of many participants.

Jorge Castanheir, president of LIESA, said schools will not have the time or
the financial and organizational capabilities to make the Carnival parade
possible for February.

Castanheir did not give an alternate date for the parade but said it will depend
on whether a vaccine is available and if there will be immunizations.

So far, the Rio city government has not announced whether the Carnival
street parties will be held.

Brazil has the highest tally of coronavirus infections in Latin America with
more than 4.6 million cases and nearly 140,000 deaths.