Coronavirus lockdown leaves international tourists stranded in Australia | ABC News

Sonia Alvarez’s first trip overseas hasn’t gone to plan.

The 58-year-old nurse from Colombia travelled to Sydney with her daughter Camila Cardona and her son-in-law Ricardo Stoltze on March 16 for a three-week holiday.

But it has turned into a two-month-long stay after the borders in Colombia closed and their flights were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“We were here for a happy vacation, everything was organised but now it’s an anxious situation,” Ms Alvarez said.

The Colombian trio are not the only tourists stranded in Australia due to restricted international travel.

According to the Department of Home Affairs, there are more than 110,000 tourists in the country.

Many nations are in the process of repatriating their citizens but with air travel still heavily restricted and flight tickets often expensive, tourists remain in limbo about when they will be able to return home.

Read more here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-20/coronavirus-lockdown-leaves-tourists-stranded-in-australia/12265658

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In This Story: Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a transcontinental country largely in the north of South America, with territories in North America. Colombia is bounded on the north by the Caribbean Sea, the northwest by Panama, the south by Ecuador and Peru, the east by Venezuela, the southeast by Brazil, and the west by the Pacific Ocean.

The capital is Bogotá, the country’s largest city. With over 50 million inhabitants Colombia is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse countries in the world. The Republic of Colombia was declared in 1886. Panama seceded in 1903.

Colombia’s territory encompasses Amazon rainforest, highlands, grasslands, and deserts, and it is the only country in South America with coastlines and islands along both the Atlantic and Pacific.

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During the 2020 Covid-19 epidemic, lockdown has come to mean the practice of attempting to control transmission of the virus by means of restricting people’s movement and activities on a broad scale, usually on a national or state-wide basis.

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Sydney, capital of New South Wales and one of Australia‘s largest cities, is best known for its harbourfront Sydney Opera House, with a distinctive sail-like design.

  • Population: 5.23 million (2018)

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