When Covid-19 started spreading around the world in 2020, Australia was one of the countries that totally shut its borders that Mar.
But after 2 years of one of the strictest border closures ever, Australia is ready to welcome foreign travellers again.
However, they must fulfill at least 1 important condition: Being fully vaccinated.
The good news was announced by Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday (7 Feb) during a “live” media briefing carried by ABC News, as well as a Facebook post.
During the briefing, he emphasised that to be allowed entry, “the condition is you must be double vaccinated”.
Everyone is expected to abide by this rule, he added – including non-vaccinated tennis star Novak Djokovic, who was made to leave the country in Jan.
Mr Morrison seemed to allude to that incident when he said “events earlier in the year” should’ve sent a clear message that Australia won’t compromise.
It’s important for people to understand this requirement, Mr Morrison said, repeating,
If you are double vaccinated, we look forward to welcoming you back to Australia.
He also emphasised that proof of vaccination is separate from an Australian visa – i.e. travellers who have a visa still must prove their vaccination status.
However, there might be some leeway for the unvaccinated.
Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews later said unvaccinated travellers would have to apply for an exemption to enter Australia.
That means they will have to “provide proof there is a medical reason that they cannot be vaccinated”.
Even if granted permission to enter, they would still have to undergo quarantine in a hotel.
As some Singaporeans might know, we have already been enjoying quarantine-free travel to certain parts of Australia.
Specifically, the cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra have been open to vaccinated travellers from Singapore since 21 Dec. (Well, 21 Nov actually, but it was suspended for 3 weeks in between.)
This, coupled with our Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) from Australia, meant that we could fly back and forth from these cities without quarantine.
Now that Australia will fully reopen, Singaporeans won’t be restricted to these 3 cities but will be able to go farther afield to other destinations like Brisbane and Adelaide.
Or perhaps we could even travel to Alice Springs to see Uluru.
The news should be met with excitement by Australia’s tourist industry, as their border has been effectively closed to casual tourists for close to 2 years, Mr Morrisson said.
While they started allowing certain groups of travellers – like skilled migrants, students and backpackers – to enter last year, international tourists were more or less barred.
In a video shared on his Facebook page, the Aussie PM said the reopening signalled that Australia was “getting back to normal” as much as they could.
The relaxing of almost all curbs comes after Australia had like many countries experience a surge in cases due to the Omicron Variant.
The country has reported about 2.4 million cases since Nov, when the 1st Omicron case was detected, said Reuters.
However, the spread has since slowed down, with 25,247 cases reported on Sunday (6 Feb), down from a high of 175,271 on 12 Jan, according to Our World In Data.
Hence, given their previous zero-Covid strategy is now defunct, it might be the time to boost the economy at least by opening up.
Now that Australia has finally opened up their borders, we look forward to some other countries or territories taking note and following suit.
For example, Japan or Taiwan, who’ve also been shut to tourists for the longest time.
Hopefully, this will mark the start of a return to pre-Covid travels for majority of the world, and a much-needed boost for travel-deprived Singaporeans.
Will you consider heading to Australia now that it’s reopening? Do share your stories with us.
Have news you must share? Get in touch with us via email at news@mustsharenews.com.
Featured image adapted from Danny Lau on Unsplash.
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