Most Australians will remain banned from international journeys till at least March 2021, following an extension of the ‘biosecurity emergency interval’ which allows the Federal Government to place restrictions on abroad flights and cruise ships.
“The emergency period, which has been in place since 18 March 2020, is now set to cease on 17 March 2021,” mentioned Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt.
This will mark a full 12 months since the nation’s borders were slammed shut in the face of COVID-19.
In that time, just over 95,000 Australian residents have been permitted to leave the country after obtaining an exemption from the Department of Home Affairs and the Australian Border Force.
Hunt said the government continued to act on “specialist medical and epidemiological advice provided by the Australian Health Safety Principal Committee (AHPPC) and Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer.”
“The disease is spreading as rapidly as ever,” Hunt added.
“The international world remains difficult and harmful surroundings and Australia won’t be fully protected till the international neighborhood is safe.”
Vaccinations from March 2021
March 2021 is also when Hunt expects the first shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to be made out there, pending approval by the independent Therapeutic Goods Administration.
The government has earmarked 10 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which would cover a maximum of 5 million people given the vaccine requires a two-jab regime – one as a starter, the second as a booster.
Injections will probably be free to all Australians and Medicare-eligible visa holders, though they will not be necessary.
Under the government’s National Vaccination Coverage, shots would first be issued to front-line healthcare and aged care employees and quarantine staff whose jobs put them at elevated danger of exposure and transmission.
Subsequent on the listing will probably be people with a heightened risk of contracting an extreme case of Covid-19 due to their age or underlying health conditions.
Injections will then roll out to what are described as “essential services employees”: a bunch not but totally outlined but encompasses “key occupations” offering providers “vital to societal functioning”.
With those three bases covered, any member of the general public – a group extremely more likely to include would-be abroad travelers – might line up for a shot.
Three different promising vaccine candidates lined up by the government are from Oxford/AstraZeneca (34m), Novavax (40m), and the University of Queensland (51m)
“Our national aim is to ensure that all Australians who seek to be vaccinated are vaccinated by the end of 2021,” Hunt has mentioned, including that “we will not be out of this till we have now a nation which has had a full vaccination program.”
Obligatory vaccination for travellers?
Australia’s National Vaccination Coverage has additionally urged that visitors to Australia could also be required to point out proof of COVID-19 vaccination or face two weeks of user-pays resort quarantine.
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce says that vaccination will be mandatory for all Australians flying abroad with the airline as soon as international travel returns in 2021.
Exceptions would likely be made for New Zealand and potentially different countries concerned in a COVID-safe ‘travel bubble’, along with passengers who qualify for a medical exemption.
“Australia’s success at just about eliminating COVID means we’ll want a vaccine for international travel to restart properly,” Joyce famous during a market update last week.
“As soon as a safe and efficient vaccine turns into available, it will be a requirement for travel on our international services.”
Joyce said the airline is currently working with different carriers and the industry as to what form this ‘COVID vaccination passport’ would take, resembling a digital travel pass app.
“The Government is working by means of how vaccines will be registered technically and how a digital passport and digital necessities will probably be managed, however, we have now a lot of months earlier than detail wants to be finalized.”
