CANBERRA, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced a second economic stimulus package and warned against all non-essential travel as COVID-19 continues to spread.
Morrison on Sunday afternoon unveiled the 66-billion-Australian-dollar (38.2 billion U.S. dollars) package, building on measures included in the 17.6-billion-Australian-dollar (10.2 billion U.S. dollars) package he announced on March 13.
Under the second package small businesses will receive cash payments of up to 100,000 Australian dollars (57,865 U.S. dollars) in an attempt to save jobs.
Speaking at a press conference in Canberra, Morrison urged Australians to cancel all non-essential travel within the country in order to stop the spread.
He was joined by Josh Frydenberg, Australian Treasurer, who said that the economic impact of COVID-19 Australia would be "deeper, wider and longer" than previously thought.
The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia was 1,098 as of Sunday morning -- an increase of more than 200 from 874 on Saturday morning.
"We cannot prevent all the many hardships, many sacrifices that we will face in the months ahead," Morrison said about the economic package.
"And while these hardships and sacrifices may break our hearts on occasion, we must not let them break our spirit and we must not let them break our resolves as Australians."
The national cabinet, which is comprised of Morrison and state and territory leaders, will meet on Sunday night to discuss how the government's social distancing measures can be enforced.
The Premiers of New South Wales and Victoria, which together account for 63.6 percent of Australia's confirmed cases, will reportedly use the meeting to push for a blanket lockdown on non-essential activities, including businesses.
"People cannot be cavalier about these things and must take them extremely seriously because lives and livelihoods are at stake," Morrison said.
"The more social distancing we do, the less severe the economic impacts have to be and so that is why I appeal to Australians that you are and listed in our fight against the virus. You have a role to play.
"All non-essential travel should be canceled."
Only minutes after Morrison's press conference concluded Steven Marshall, the Premier of South Australia (SA), announced that the state will effectively close its borders indefinitely from Tuesday, becoming the first state or territory to do so.
Anyone who enters SA from 4 p.m. local time on Tuesday will be subjected to a mandatory 14-day isolation period.
"What we have seen in recent days is an increasing number of people who have contracted the virus from people visiting from interstate and South Australians who have been interstate, returning to South Australia," Marshall said.
"This is forced our decision to close our borders in South Australia. We make this decision in the interest of public health in South Australia.
"This is no longer something which is optional. It is mandatory. It is the social responsibility of every single person in this state to make sure that they are abiding by these rules."
