Australia’s International border to reopen amidst Covid concerns

C: https://indianexpress.com/

Australia will now reopen its international border from November. It will give long-awaited freedom to the vaccinated citizens and their relatives. Since March 2020, Australia has had some strict border rules. It has even banned its people from leaving the country.

Though this policy has received much praise in terms of covid suppression, it has separated families quite controversially.

Now is the time to give Australians their lives back, according to the words of PM Scott Morrison.

Now people would be eligible to travel across the international border when their state’s vaccination rate reaches 80%. Travel would not open immediately to foreigners. But the government said that it is working towards welcoming tourists back to their shores.

Amy Hayes, who lives in the English town of Berkshire, could not return to Queensland in nearly 3 years. She said that it is quite encouraging to see things are moving in the right direction.

Ian Jasper, who lived for many years in Australia before going back to England, is hoping to travel to Perth to see his family. He said that he is hoping to spend three months in Australia to celebrate Christmas and to attend the wedding of his granddaughter.

Henry Aldridge is also very excited to fly back to the UK for Christmas to see his parents and five of his siblings in London.

They are pretty excited about the news. For the first year and a half, they have looked at the UK and thought they were pretty happy there. But the last few months were not ideal. With the extension of lockdown in the country, he encountered more problems.

At present, people can leave Australia. Australia recorded more than 107,000 Covid cases with 1300+ deaths. Now people can leave Australia only for exceptional reasons, such as essential work or to visit dying relatives. Citizens with entry permits and others with exemptions will also get to enter. However, there are tight caps on arrival numbers. Thousands of Australians have been left stranded overseas.

Mr. Morrison said that it is mandatory to stay 14 days in quarantine that costs each traveller A$3000. This would be replaced by seven days of home quarantine for vaccinated Australians or permanent residents. Unvaccinated travellers have to stay in quarantine for 15 days in hotels.