With experts warning the world is close to a "tipping point" in its battle against coronavirus, and the director general of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, saying the "window of opportunity" to prevent a pandemic is closing, Australia's strict travel restrictions have proved to be more than justified.
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The latest decision, to keep them in place, albeit with some tweaks to allow non-citizen Australian high school students to return, makes a lot of sense given what has been happening in the past 72 hours.
There are now significant outbreaks in South Korea, Italy and Iran. That is in addition to the Diamond Princess outbreak in Japan.
The total number of cases worldwide is approaching 80,000. More than 2,300 people have died and there are fears of a new strain of the disease with a much longer incubation period.
Few people, perhaps apart from those now under isolation in Darwin, would disagree with the decision to impose a second quarantine period on the ocean liner evacuees given it is obvious the on-board arrangements were an abysmal failure and appear to have accelerated the spread of the disease.
While the Chinese government has singled Australia out for criticism over its travel bans, despite the fact other countries including the US have similar controls in place, this is not a matter for them to decide.
The Australian government's first duty is to keep its people safe.
The Australian government's first duty is to keep its people safe. All the decisions taken to date, based on the best available medical and scientific advice, have had this as their primary focus.
The fact major population centres in Italy, South Korea and Iran are now in lockdown with all the adverse social, medical and economic effects that implies is clear evidence of what can happen if this virus is given a toehold in a heavily populated area.
A real game changer, and one Australian health authorities will be watching closely, is the report of a new patient in China's Hubei province who did not display symptoms until 27 days after being infected with the coronavirus.
That is almost twice as long as the current quarantine period in place in this country and around the world.
The weekend's dramatic events have cast a pall over earlier reports the Chinese were making good progress with the spread of the disease there slowing down.
That positive news, which was partly responsible for the Australian decision to allow Chinese school students to return to this country under stringent conditions, should not be overlooked.
Every effort should also be made to shut down any strident, and arguably racist, opposition to that decision.
No students from Hubei Province, the epicentre of the Chinese outbreak, will be allowed into Australia.
Individual states and territories have the authority to override the federal initiative if they wish do so.
Each returning student will have to comply with a 13-step process and individual schools will have to agree to their return.
"In the last few weeks from mainland China ... there have been very, very few exported cases of this disease," Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan has said.
There may also be scope, given thousands of Chinese university students have been able to enter Australia after spending 14 days in a third country in recent weeks, to relax restrictions further.
That would come as a welcome lifeline to the higher education sector which is facing a disastrous start to the academic year.
All of that said; Australia has managed this crisis very well to date and care needs to be taken to ensure we don't drop the ball now.