Yesterday brought more news on Australia’s border reopening, this time from the Health Department Secretary, Brendan Murphy. The professor served as Chief Medical Officer from the start of the pandemic before being promoted to Secretary of the Department of Health. Government officials always say they’re listening to the advice of the health and medical team — but in reality, that’s just the advice of the team he leads. Having heard from him so many times now,his views tend to come more from a medical and health perspective, and are probably more practical and objective.
He said that as vaccination rollout among Australians progresses,home quarantine or a shortened hotel quarantine period could replace the current mandatory 14-day hotel quarantine for people returning from overseas, and as the global vaccination rollout progresses, international travel could also resume next year(he presumably meant on a larger scale and with greater freedom).
As more and more Australians get vaccinated, and as more and more countries roll out vaccination,we will start gradually working out what (new) border and quarantine measures we need to put in place.“For example,Australia may consider shortening hotel quarantine time or increasing home quarantine time, especially for people who have already been vaccinated.
Right, so once again we come towhen international entry and exit can reopenas a question.
He said the situation around border reopening is expected to be fairly complex and tricky, particularly because it’s still unclear how long protection from any given vaccine will last. He hoped international travel would be reasonably good again next year, but said it’s too early to say for sure right now.
Another point he was fairly firm on is that before international borders open,state and territory borders must open up first,“As a nation, we must open up, reduce all restrictions, and make sure we never close any state border again.”
Phase 1b of the vaccine rollout starts today, 22 March, with around 6 million vulnerable Australians set to begin receiving the vaccine. This phase targets people aged over 70, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults aged over 55, and anyone with certain health conditions.
More than 280,000 people in Australia have been vaccinated so far.
Either way, border reopening will happen gradually — it’s not going to happen all at once,travel bubbles between Australia and other countriesshould be seen in the nearer term — for example with Singapore, and with New Zealand,and there has been progress on the New Zealand one today too.
Australian Health Minister Greg Huntrevised the Biosecurity Emergency Requirements today, Monday, so that anyone who has been in Australia for at least 14 days can “travel directly to New Zealand”.
This is really aimed atcontinuing to advance a two-way trans-Tasman travel bubble between New Zealand and Australia.
At this stage, travellers from Australia still need to quarantine on arrival in New Zealand, unless the New Zealand Government decides to further extend the travel bubble arrangements — a topic the New Zealand Cabinet is also set to focus on today,with the New Zealand Prime Minister saying in an interview that things are “getting close”.
She said that while a final decision is unlikely to be made by the end of today, “we do want to get the travel bubble up and running as soon as possible.”The launch is expected to be announced around 6 April, so both governments are now essentially in the final stage of ironing out the details.
Of course, keeping people in both countries safe remains the top priority, so everyone is hoping there won’t be any surprises like a sudden new case popping up, especially community transmission.
It’s still very much a case of watch-and-see, with both sides working hard and discussing actively, but the timing is gradually maturing — we’re getting closer and closer!
International students and skilled migrants returning to Australia
this time it might really be something to look forward to!
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