Australian state ends quarantine for vaccinated travelers
CANBERRA, Oct 15 (BNA) Sydney will end hotel quarantine for vaccinated passengers when scheduled international flights resume in Australia within two weeks, officials said on Friday, while maintaining some restrictions on foreigners entering the country. .
New South Wales Premier Dominic Beirut said travelers who have been vaccinated and tested positive for COVID-19 before traveling to Australia’s largest city will be exempted from 14 days of hotel quarantine from 1 November.
A major easing of the state’s epidemiological restrictions, making it easier for some travelers to enter Australia, has been announced, four days after Sydney emerged from a 106-day lockdown.
“We can’t live here in a hermit kingdom. We have to open up and this decision today is a big one, but it’s the right one to connect NSW globally,” Perrottet said.
“It would be great for our tourism industry, and it would be great for tourism operators,” he added.
Sydney is the first Australian international airport to reopen because the news of South Wales has the highest vaccination rate of any state.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has agreed to resume travel on November 1, but has yet to say when foreign tourists will be welcomed into Australia. I’ve been left out this year.
Permanent residents and Australian citizens will be free to travel next month for the first time since the country’s borders were closed in March last year due to some of the toughest travel restrictions in the democratic world. Skilled immigrants and students will be given priority in coming to Australia over international tourists.
Morrison said Friday that parents of Australians will be reclassified as first-class family, allowing foreign nationals to visit grandchildren born in Australia during the pandemic.
Grandparents previously had to wait until the tourists were allowed to return for family reunification. But Morrison said the restrictions on foreigners entering Australia would not change otherwise.
Qantas Airways responded to the news by offering international flights scheduled for two weeks until November 1. The first flights will operate between Sydney and Los Angeles and Sydney and London.
Restrictions on hotel rooms available for quarantine have been a major obstacle for Australians wishing to return home.
It is not clear if returning Australians will be able to avoid hotel quarantines in other states by landing in Sydney and then boarding domestic flights across state lines.
The Victorian state government, which has bypassed neighboring New South Wales as Australia’s COVID-19 hotspot, is keen to see the details of the quarantine changes.
“Everyone just needs to take a refreshing pill,” Victoria’s health minister, Martin Foley, responded to questions from reporters about the two states’ conflicting quarantine policies.
“We are not aware of the full details of a hot media statement about the printer from the NSW government,” Foley said.
Queensland, which has remained virtually COVID-19-free throughout the pandemic with tight border controls, has hinted that it will open for vaccinated interstate travelers by Christmas.
“There has been a massive change this morning that I haven’t been able to move my head to, so I need to know what that change means,” said Janet Young, Queensland’s chief health officer.
Health experts have accused Beiruter of putting economic priorities ahead of health since he replaced his predecessor, Gladys Berejiklian, last week.
But the Australian Tourism Export Council, which represents the country’s tourism export sector, has welcomed the end of the hotel quarantine.
“The Australian tourism industry has borne the brunt of international border closures, with many businesses experiencing a lack of income since March 2020,” said Council Director General Peter Shelley.
“This announcement not only gives tour operators their income but also lets the world know they are welcome back in Australia,” he added.
AOQ