More border rules ease in Australia ahead of Christmas holidays

Sydney, Dec 13 (BUS): The coronavirus-free state of Queensland opened its local borders to all vaccinated people on Monday for the first time in nearly five months, as Australians prepare to travel without quarantine across most of the country during the busy period. Christmas period.

Television footage showed hundreds of cars queuing at the state’s southern border with New South Wales long before the rules were relaxed at 1am local time (1400 GMT, Sunday).

Queensland, Australia’s third most populous state, closed its border with New South Wales in July and later on to people arriving from Victoria to protect against the delta virus outbreak that has rocked the east of the country for several months.

“We will live with COVID – but on our terms,” state Premier Anastasia Palazczuk said in a tweet, as the state topped its goal of fully vaccinating 80% of people over 16 – a prerequisite for relaxing the rules.

Qantas (QAN.AX) said it will carry nearly 10,000 passengers to and from Queensland on Monday on about 100 flights, with most fully booked.

The easing of border restrictions comes just days before school summer vacation begins and will be a boost to the state’s lucrative tourism sector, which has been hit hard by internal border restrictions.

Australian states are relaxing border rules after reaching higher levels of vaccination despite the threat from new alternative Omicron.

Tasmania is preparing to reopen its borders to other states later this week, while Western Australia will announce its plans later on Monday. South Australia has been welcoming cross-state entrants since late November.

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Australia has recorded nearly 229,000 cases of COVID-19 and 2,104 deaths, far fewer than many similar countries. About 70 cases of the Omicron variant have been detected in the country so far, mainly in Sydney.

FKN

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