Australia in no hurry to reopen borders: PM Scott Morrison
19 April, 2021
Australia is in no hurry to reopen its international borders and risk the country's practically coronavirus-free lifestyle, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Sunday (Apr 18).
Australia closed its borders to all or any non-citizens and non-residents in March 2020 and has permitted only limited international arrivals lately, mainly Australians returning from abroad.
Border closures, together with snap lockdowns, swift contact tracing and high community compliance with health measures, has made Australia among the world's most successful countries in curbing the pandemic.
Australia has recorded around 29,500 COVID-19 cases and 910 deaths.
"Australia is in no hurry to open those borders, I assure you," Morrison said in a televised briefing.
"I'll not be putting at risk just how we are surviving in this country, which is indeed different to all of those other world today."
For months now, aside from some short snap lockdowns, Australians have already been able to dine out, gather practically freely and prevent wearing face masks generally in most places.
They exchanged their international forays for local trips, with government figures showing big total annual increases in intra-state travel in the first months of 2021.
From Monday, Australians and neighbouring New Zealanders should be able to travel between both countries with no need to use for an exemption or spend amount of time in mandatory quarantine.
New Zealand has already established only 2,239 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 26 related deaths.
Morrison flagged on Sunday that vaccinated Australians could possibly be able travel overseas "for essential purposes" and return via home quarantine in the next half of the year, but that possibility is only in "planning stages".
Australia recently abandoned an objective to vaccinate nearly most of its 26 million population by the finish of 2021 following advice that people under the age of 50 should take Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine instead of AstraZeneca's shot.
Source: www.channelnewsasia.com
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