Cabinet has established Coronavirus as a notifiable disease giving powers to the Chief Medical Officer

Cabinet has established Coronavirus or specifically Covid2019 as a notifiable disease pursuant to the Public Health Act 1965.

This means that the Chief Medical Officer has the powers to order any person to undergo certain medical examination in his home or in the Hospital and gives the Chief Medical Officer powers to enter any home or premises that a suspected person may be in. 

The Chief medical officer can order any person to be admitted to and detained in an isolation station for a certain period. 

Cabinet has approved the travel advisory placing restrictions on the travel of public servants to China and any country with confirmed cases of the disease. 

Meanwhile, the official name for the disease caused by the new coronavirus is Covid-2019.

This announcement by the World Health Organization comes after the death toll from the virus passed 1000 with tens of thousands of people having been infected.

Researchers have been calling for an official name to avoid confusion and stigmatization.

The word coronavirus refers to the group of viruses it belongs to, rather than the latest strain.

There are now more than 42 thousand 200 confirmed cases across China. The number of deaths has overtaken that of the SARS epidemic in 2003.

Earlier this week, 103 died in Hubei province alone, a daily record, and the national death toll is now 1016.